Filenews 31 May 2022 - by Michalis Hadjivasilis
Eleven thousand out of court fines from the traffic police cameras are problematic and the managing company is asking for them to be rejected. The shock came to a meeting about the course of the photo-labelling system, held yesterday, with the expiration of the schedule to the company to proceed with the thousands of out-of-court fees that are delayed. The problem of performance remains.
From 1/1/2022 until now, 78,627 drivers from the eight cameras have been reported, a number that is considered to be extremely large. Of these extrajudicial cases, about 36,000 have been served or are in the process of being served, while the most important thing, as the Minister of Transport, Yiannis Karousos, told "F", are the 11,000 complaints that the company is asking to be rejected. Because there are a large number of them, the reasons have been asked for which they should be rejected. As the company informed, for many of these complaints the registration numbers of the vehicles are not visible, others the photos were not clear or the cameras did not photograph the vehicle properly, while some concern tests of the technicians or were escort vehicles, ambulances, etc.
Mr. Karousos made it clear that we will remain in the pilot phase until the end of June, i.e. the first phase will not proceed as provided by the contracts, until the problems are solved. Already, as "F" wrote, the contracting authority, which is the Department of Electromechanical Services, has been asked for a three-month extension to the receipt of the next phase, which concerns 20 fixed cameras and 16 mobile ones.
Our goal, Mr. Karousos continued, is to automate the process and from the moment a driver is reported, to identify and send the out-of-court order.
Responding to criticism of the way mobile cameras report drivers, the transport minister said he himself had received complaints. According to the legislation, it is forbidden to hide cameras, while in order to make them more visible to drivers, it was decided to place on vehicles bearing cameras, special signs as vans of photo-marking. Also, Mr. Karousos made it clear that due to the problems that exist, not a single cent has yet been given to the company that manages the cameras, while noting that he asked for information on whether accidents have occurred at the point where the fixed cameras are located.
