Police hope it will lead to fewer people being killed and seriously injured. – The speed cameras are a good supplement to the police’s mobile control activity, says director Runar Karlsen in the Police Directorate. He is also the former chief of the Emergency Police. April and May this year have been the deadliest months in traffic in several years. Now the authorities think that more active speed cameras may slow down the number of accidents. The speed cameras have so far only been in operation part of the day, and at least where the traffic is heaviest. – The speed cameras will be on 90 percent of the time, it is much more than until now. Many more will be caught, says department director Runar Karlsen in the Police Directorate. Photo: Torstein Bøe / Torstein Bøe In operation almost around the clock – Now we turn the boxes on so that they are approx. 90 percent of the day. This applies to all speed cameras in the whole country, says Runar Karlsen. The Norwegian Police Directorate has in fact adjusted the so-called “target number” for how many people are to be taken out of the speed camera from 180,000 in previous years to 250,000 this year. The decision was made before the many fatal accidents in April and May this year. But both the police and the Public Roads Administration hope the measure will slow down the number of serious accidents. The speed cameras make people drive slower, even a long distance after they have passed them, according to the Norwegian Public Roads Administration. Photo: Yngve Tørrestad / NRK Will take 70,000 more – Probably about 70,000 more will be taken in the photo booth this year than previous years, he says. – Why are you doing this? – It is a traffic safety measure to reduce speed, because speed takes life. We know that the speed cameras, both point measurements and distance measurements, affect traffic safety. – Why not wear the boxes all the time? – It is about the capacity, both of the Public Roads Administration, which supports equipment and delivers cases to the police, and the police’s capacity to process cases. There are 413 speed cameras along the roads in Norway, according to the Norwegian Public Roads Administration. 273 of them conduct point measurement. The others are on roads with distance measurement that controls average speed. Photo: Gunnar Grimstveit To slow down Slowing down is one of the goals in the new action plan for traffic safety that was presented in March. The proportion of drivers who keep the speed limit will be increased from 62 per cent to 72 per cent. The police are now strengthening the staff at the center for automatic traffic control in Molde. Among other things, they weed out emergency vehicles and cases where the images are of poor quality to be used as evidence. And they make sure that speeding offenders are fined or fined. Until 2015, this was one of the most accident-prone road sections in Norway. In the 10 years before stretch measurements came up here, five people lost their lives and many were seriously injured. Since then, no one has been killed or seriously injured here. Ended many fatal accidents Average measurement on selected sections is politically controversial, but also very effective. – There were many accidents here, especially many serious ones, says Guro Ranes, department director for traffic safety at the Norwegian Public Roads Administration. She drives on county road 170 between Bjørkelangen and Fetsund in Akershus. There was an average measurement in 2015 on part of the stretch. Department director Guro Ranes keeps a count of all fatal accidents in traffic. She is worried about the many accidents in April and May this year. And she hopes that speed cameras that are active most of the day will prevent some of the accidents. Photo: Torstein Bøe / Torstein Bøe – In the ten years before 2015, five people lost their lives here, and many were seriously injured. Afterwards, there have been no serious accidents here. No one was killed and no one seriously injured, says Ranes. She says that the point measurements also work in a larger area than exactly where the boxes are. – Measurements have shown that people drive a little more carefully even three kilometers after passing a speed camera. So the hope is that they will take this driving behavior with them on the rest of the road network as well, says Ranes.
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Speed cameras will catch 70,000 more speeding offenders this year – NRK Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
