£5.7m in fines M32 speed camera the most prolific in the country
DRIVERS caught by one speed camera in Bristol have been fined up to £5.7 million over three years.
The Gatso device in Bristol has topped a list of the 27 cameras in England that have snapped the most drivers.
It caught 57,207 motorists breaking the 40mph speed limit on the M32, an average of more than 50 per day.
And two other hotspots around Bristol made the top 10 – the M5 in Almondsbury and a stretch of the M4 north of the city. The 27 busiest cameras in the country flashed motorists 579,000 times, potentially yielding almost £58 million in £100 fines, according to Home Office figures.
Other hotspots included the M1 and M25, as well as London’s Tower Bridge, the Thames crossing, the A1081 near Luton Airport, Lea Bridge Road in East London and the A12 between Colchester and Ipswich.
The figures show cameras caught drivers 2.2 million times last year, up from 1.9 million times in 2017. Drivers claim many cameras are aimed primarily at making money rather than cutting accidents – a suspicion backed by police and fire chiefs earlier this year.
A report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary called for greater transparency over the use of cameras.
It said: “We were told that the reason enforcement took place at certain locations was that they were ‘ good hunting ground’, rather than because they had a history of collisions.”
Revenue from speeding tickets goes to the Treasury. But safety camera partnerships, which operate some speed traps, keep a portion for awareness courses.
AA president Edmund King said: “There is no doubt that at some locations drivers get caught out because the speed limit does not appear to reflect the level of danger or type of road. “In the top two cases – at the end of the M32 in Bristol and in Airport Way in Luton – cameras are located where speed limits drop considerably at the end of a dual carriageway system.
“We suggest putting up interactive speed signs before the cameras to show drivers they are driving too fast. If they continue to speed then it is a fair cop.”
“However, the biggest influence on compliance is physical police presence.”
The Alliance of British Drivers called many limits “completely inappropriate”, and asked: “What good are the fines doing? Just annoying people and taking money out of their pockets.”
Avon and Somerset police said the M32 Bristol camera was to enforce the 40mph limit, and two others near the city were on roads with a variable limit.