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Daily Mail, Monday 16th October 2006
By Ray Massey, Transport Editor
Motorists can avoid being caught by a new generation of speed cameras simply by changing lanes, it emerged last night. The Speed Enforcement Camera Systems devices measure a driver's average speed between two fixed points many miles apart. But because of a flaw in the system, prosecutions are valid only if a driver is filmed at the start and finish of each section by a pair of linked cameras.
On roads with more than one carriageway, that would mean speeding drivers cold escape £60 fines and three points on their licence simply by changing lanes. Last night Med Hughes, head of roads policing for the Association of Police Officers, said it would be 'irresponsible' and dangerous or drivers to change lanes in a bid to avoid detection.
SPECS cameras, which are produced by Camberley-based Speed Check Services, have been installed at 27 locations around Britain. Fourteen sites, including those in London, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Nottinghamshire are permanent. The remainder check speed through roadworks on the M6, M25, A1(M) and M1.
Last night the Home Office admitted that SPECS cameras are only approved to be used on one lane at a time. That means a three-lane motorway would require three separate pairs of cameras - one for each lane. The cameras' manufacturers also admitted that drivers could escape prosecution by lane-hopping but discouraged it on safety grounds.
Unlike standard Gatso cameras which individually flash a car as it passes, SPECS cameras are designed to catch motorists who slow down in front of a camera, then drive above the speed limit until they reach the next one. They work by measuring the time a vehicle takes to pass between two number-plate reading cameras set up to 6.2miles apart. A computer works out the time it takes to cover the distance, and then calculates the average speed. If this is higher than the speed limit, a colour photograph taken by a third digital camera is stored for enforcement purposes. But under Home Office rules, each individual set cannot be linked to any of the others.
SCS's technical director Graeme Southwood said that when the devices were approved by the Home Office in 1999, they passed strict tests for use in one lane at a time. But there was not enough time to extend the approval tests to cover the cameras' use over two or three lanes. This has created the legal loophole.
Most of the time each number plate reader in a pair will be directed at the same single lane of traffic and will therefore not detect lane-hoppers, according to SCS's sales and marketing manager Geoff Collins. He said: "If it's configured to monitor one particular lane, then it wouldn't pick up a lane changer." He said the cameras were 'occasionally' configured so that the second number plate reader in a pair was directed at a lane adjacent to the first. I that event, drivers who stayed in the same lane would avoid detection, he said, while speeders who lane-hopped would be caught. But he said none of the current installations featured sets of cameras which spanned all three lanes and admitted that drivers who moved from lane one to lane three on the motorway while speeding would not be detected for the offence.
Mr Hughes, Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police, stressed that lane-hoppers could not expect to get away with speeding. "Motorists who change lanes in average speed detection lanes, such as major roadworks, will not be able to guarantee avoiding detection," he said. "Multiple enforcement systems are often used and detection zones will vary depending on the placement of the equipment. Motorists are strongly advised not to seek to evade detection by unnecessarily changing lanes as this would generate a greater risk of collision and may lead to other offences being committed which the police may prosecute. These camera systems are designed to make our roads safer by reducing speed and casualties. It is irresponsible for motorists to seek to evade detection and speed."
Last year more than two million motorists were caught speeding on camera, raising £120million a year in revenue for Safety Camera Partnerships comprising police, magistrates, councils and road safety groups.
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