The Kerala Road Safety Authority will install automated cameras linked to speed sensors to take snapshots of vehicles that speed excessively on the arterial Vellayambalam-Raj Bhavan-Kowdiar road.
Additional Director-General of Police and Transport Commissioner T.P. Sen Kumar said speed was the major cause of accidents reported on the avenue. The casualties were mostly young two-wheeler riders.
The authority hopes to make the avenue safe by placing speed detection cameras at different points along it. Other long-term accident reduction strategies include road engineering, and scientific redesigning of medians, roundabouts, and junctions on the stretch.
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The proposed traffic enforcement tool integrates vehicle speed-detection radars, night vision-enabled cameras with zoom-in capability, and powerful flash lights in a single device.
It will automatically track vehicles passing through the stretch, and capture the image and registration number of those that violate speed norms.
The digital information will be relayed through a secure fibre optic cable to a control room at the Joint Transport Commissioner's Office. Enforcers of the Motor Vehicles Department will use the information to identify the vehicle owner, and issue him or her speeding tickets.
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Officials say the speed cameras will be clearly visible to motorists and warning boards will be put up to dissuade them from speeding on the stretch. The cameras will be linked to each other so that the devices can gauge the time a vehicle took to pass the road segment.
The cameras will be specially configured to capture the rear registration number plate of speeding motorcyclists. The authority has contracted a private company to implement the project.
A local resident welcomed the positioning of the speed cameras. He said motorbike and car racing were common on the stretch, particularly at night and on weekends. The racers, all youth, posed a threat to the safety of pedestrians and other motorists.
In the past one year, not less than six youths have been killed and many more injured in excessive speeding and drunk driving-related accidents on the stretch.