Now traffic cameras will detect a mobile phone...on your lap!
Justice Minister believes going hi-tech can curb alarming recent rise in deaths
NEW traffic cameras that will detect if drivers are using mobile phones behind the wheel, or even on their lap, are set to be introduced, the Justice Minister has said.
Helen McEntee and Taoiseach Simon Harris met with the Road Safety Authority (RSA) this week to discuss measures to tackle the increase in road deaths in Ireland this year and last.
So far this year, 63 people have been killed on our roads with half of those aged under 30. The death toll is 15 higher than in the same period last year.
Transport Minister Eamon Ryan had earlier said the cameras would first be deployed in Dublin and then nationwide.
Yesterday, Ms McEntee said: ‘Technology is a really important part of making sure we decrease the unacceptable increase in road deaths we’ve seen. It really is very upsetting for everybody to see the significant increase over the last few months.
‘We know in other countries they use technology and cameras to identify if someone’s not wearing a seatbelt, to identify if someone who’s on the phone or even has a phone on their lap.’
She added: ‘And so progress is going to be made to look at how we can implement those types of technologies.’
Anyone caught breaking the rules of the road by the cameras will receive automatic fines.
Last year, gardaí said they would examine ‘opportunities for emerging technologies and innovation’ in speed cameras.
A tender published in April last year said gardaí wanted to explore ‘the provision, installation, commissioning, maintenance and operation of safety cameras for the monitoring of vehicle speeds’.
‘These proposed services may be expanded in the future (subject to legislative changes) to include, but not limited to the following: no-seatbelt detection, the use of mobile phones, average/variable speed detection and compliance with traffic lights and bus lane usage,’ it added.
The technology uses AI to analyse images and detect if a driver is committing an offence. Seatbelt and mobile phone detection systems use two cameras: one to photograph the licence plate and another that photographs the driver.
If a potential offence is detected, the image is usually verified by a human before a fixed-charge penalty notice is sent out.
The technology has being rolled out by police forces in Britain and Australia.
Ms McEntee also addressed concerns that the RSA was unable to share data with local councils on areas in their county where there were accident blackspots, due to GDPR regulations.
She said: ‘That is work that’s being done by the RSA, [it is] looking at transfer of information into local authorities.
‘So that’s work that they’re progressing. My understanding is that they’d be able to identify what the problem is, so that we can then overcome it.’
Ms McEntee also said new information available to gardaí in recent months means they can tell immediately if a car has insurance or not.
She added: ‘Thousands of cars since the beginning of this year have been taken off the road. So the more information we can share between the Garda, the RSA, local authorities and others, the easier it is for us to take people who are not obeying the law of our roads and, in turn, taking away some of the dangers as well.’
On the implementation of average speed cameras, she said their introduction was a case of the ‘sooner the better’.
She added: ‘What we do know is that the gardaí who have worked with the TII [Transport Infrastructure Ireland] to identify the three locations that are now going to have the average speed cameras, as well as the nine other locations, probably those static cameras, and it’s those static cameras where we’ll be able to apply that type of technology; it means that we don’t need guards on every single road.
‘That means that we don’t need people to go to court, that you could potentially automatically get a fine and that we use technology in that really positive way. And that’s, I think, where we need to go, while at the same time making sure that enforcement is really strong.’
It comes as the RSA is set to spend a further €3million on road safety campaigns this year as part of a suite of measures aimed at reducing road deaths.
Jack Chambers, Minister of State with responsibility for road safety, last week said that he will bring recommendations on reforming the RSA to the Cabinet in the summer.
An independent review of the organisation is currently being conducted by the consultant group Indecon.
‘The sooner the better’