National Highways to fix erroneous speeding fines
Variable speed limit mistakes have meant more than 2,000 camera flashes that shouldn't have been
Plenty of us will surely have been caught speeding, only to swear that we were travelling slower. But there’s the evidence, in black and white: the maximum speed limit, and the speed of your vehicle, image complete with you at the wheel (usually). An open and shut case. Except for around 2,650 recent instances, where variable speed limits and cameras haven’t quite been in sync, meaning drivers have been flashed despite their speed being legal for the changed limit. A delay meant the cameras weren’t up to speed (pun intended, sorry) in time.
It’s an anomaly that’s being investigated by National Highways, with a fix apparently coming soon. While only said to have affected 10 per cent of the ‘Strategic Road Network’ (England’s motorways and big A-roads), and with that 2,650 number meaning less than two errors a day since the first issue was identified from 2021, it obviously won’t feel like a small issue for those drivers impacted.
Especially if it’s meant points, courses, and more money in insurance premiums. In a statement, National Highways has said any fines will be reimbursed, and points ‘removed from their licence where relevant’; everyone affected by the speed camera snafu will be contacted directly. And maybe buy a festive lottery ticket if you’re one of the lucky ones.
Chief Executive of National Highways, Nick Harris, said: "Safety is our number one priority and we have developed a fix for this technical anomaly to maintain the highest levels of safety on these roads and make sure no one is wrongly prosecuted. All drivers should continue observing the posted speed limits as normal. Anyone who has been impacted will be contacted by the relevant police force.” So don’t go thinking that dreaded flash next time could be a mistake; all being well, this will be the last that’s heard of it…
I'm sure the letters have much more detail because that press release seemed very sparse with detail for what's a pretty massive issue. At least for those affected.
5 pages at present:https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
5 pages at present:https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
That way the photo will include evidence of the current limit displayed, rather than the current "trust us, you were doing 50 in a 40" approach.
It doesn't cover the case where the limit is reduced and you immediately get snapped before having a chance to slow down, so it's not perfect; but at least there's then only one specific set of circumstances where people could be wrongly fined, so it's easier to test for and catch.
As a software developer I know that computer programs can and do go wrong in a variety of exciting, dynamic and unpredictable ways (see also Horizon), so IMO more direct evidence is needed to justify legal penalties.
That way the photo will include evidence of the current limit displayed, rather than the current "trust us, you were doing 50 in a 40" approach.
It doesn't cover the case where the limit is reduced and you immediately get snapped before having a chance to slow down, so it's not perfect; but at least there's then only one specific set of circumstances where people could be wrongly fined, so it's easier to test for and catch.
As a software developer I know that computer programs can and do go wrong in a variety of exciting, dynamic and unpredictable ways (see also Horizon), so IMO more direct evidence is needed to justify legal penalties.
These systems, certainly whenever I've looked, do have a preceding camera taking a picture of the gantry as well as your car whilst the speed camera does the speeding photo.
The advance camera is a useful warning in case the speed camera is partially obscured by the gantry or shrubbery.
These systems, certainly whenever I've looked, do have a preceding camera taking a picture of the gantry as well as your car whilst the speed camera does the speeding photo.
As such, “some drivers were incorrectly detected as speeding after the limit had changed”, the government body has admitted.
So I was considering the case where the speed limit is lowered, and the driver doesn't have time to react before being caught exceeding the new lower limit. In this case the sign and camera are in sync, just that it's too soon to enforce the new limit.
However what's gone wrong here has been that the speed limit has been increased, the sign is now showing a higher limit, the driver approaching the sign accelerates, but the camera threshold is still left at the previous lower limit for some period of time and thus the driver is snapped.
In this case you should have eg limit increases from 40mph to 50mph, driver "caught" doing 48mph, but the sign would show 50. In which case you'd think, if you had a photo of the sign and the car, it would be obvious to the staff and to the driver that the NIP is invalid as the speed detected is no greater than the number on the sign.
And yet apparently over 2000 people have been fined / prosecuted over four years.
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