Intranetics Motoring News Service

'Indestructible' speed camera could come to UK

29th August 2007 | BACK     PRINT

The toughest speed camera in the world could be headed for the UK, with its special design aimed at making it impossible to be destroyed by angry motorists caught for driving offences.

Peek Traffic, the Dutch firm behind the device, claims that it works to develop and implement "innovative" traffic systems. And this latest development in the manufacture of speed cameras is certainly inventive.

According to the Daily Mail, the 13ft device is resistant to vandals, weapon-bearing drivers and fire, with smoke and vibration detectors linked to an alarm at the nearest police station.

Evidence of an attempted attack will also be streamed to the station automatically, while the hi-tech machine will monitor four lanes of traffic travelling in both directions with its apparently all-seeing eye.

And the ultimate Big Brother of speed cameras could be heading for the UK, as its maker is set to move beyond the Dutch borders in which it already operates, the newspaper reports.

The Innovative Digital Enforcement Environment (Idee) device could transform how speeders and other traffic offenders are being tracked down, with the news and features editor of industry publication Auto Express predicting this could happen within the next year.

Mat Watson explained to the Mail that the Home Office would have to approve the device before it gets deployed on UK roads, "but this process could take less than a year".

He added that the speed camera could be popular among law enforcers in the UK, stating: "The device should certainly appeal to the authorities here because it's the toughest speed camera in the world thanks to an array of anti-vandal counter measures."

One speed camera operator who is likely to back Australian authorities if they were to consider bringing the device Down Under is a man from the Melbourne area who became the victim of an angry driver over the weekend.

A 35-year-old driver was charged with assault after he attacked the speed camera operator who caught him speeding in Mickleham with a device inside a parked car. A wheel brace was allegedly used to smash the windows of the station wagon, causing thousands of dollars worth of damage and leading to the operator having to have glass removed from his eye.

Meanwhile, the man who set the record for the fastest motorist ever to be arrested for speeding in the UK could be going to jail, following a court hearing last week.

Timothy Brady from Harrow pleaded guilty to dangerous driving in Oxford crown court last week after he was caught doing 172mph in a Porche 911 Turbo on the A420, where the speed limit is 70mph.

The 33-year-old, who at the time of his arrest in January worked as a driver for a car hire firm, was warned by the judge that he could be sent to jail for his offence.

His admission of guilt officially makes Brady the fastest motorist ever caught by speed camera or gun in the UK, according to the Daily Mail, which highlights that the speeder failed to top the 175mph clocked by motorcyclist Daniel Hicks.

The latter received a six-week jail sentence and two-year ban in 2000 after he filmed himself speeding at 175mph in Buckinghamshire on his 900cc Honda Fireblade.

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