PUTRAJAYA: Think again before you jump that red light or tailgate the car in front of you.
By mid-December, a RM300 million "Automated Enforcement System" (AES) should be in place and it will not only be able to detect speedsters, but also overloaded lorries and vehicles overtaking on double lines.
A German and an Australian company were chosen by the Transport Ministry to provide the cameras that will cover 831 black spots all over the country.
They were chosen out of nine in a worldwide tender in 2006 and 2007.
Both companies will be linked to a Malaysian concessionaire. Cameras from one company will be set up in the northern states, while the other will be hooked up in the south of the peninsula.
There will be two control centres but both will be integrated into the databases of the Road Transport Department and other government agencies.
Besides the initial start-up cost, the system is expected to cost "a few hundred million a year for maintenance", said a source.
The bulk of the cost would be for printing and posting summonses.
The source said the government may fund the system through a private finance initiative -- a local concessionaire buys it and the government leases it from them.
But the source denied rumours of "profit sharing" from the fines collected because that could lead to abuse.
The system will be up and running well before Chinese New Year, said the source.
The AES cameras will complement the existing 140 laser digital cameras used by the police and those at traffic lights.
Using sensors and inductive loops embedded in the road to detect speed, length and weight of a vehicle, the system will automatically photograph offending vehicles and issue summonses in less than a month.
Former transport minister Tan Sri Chan Kong Choy announced the setting up of the system in 2006 under the National Road Safety Master Plan (2006-2010).
Implemented in 92 countries, the system has vastly reduced road accidents and fatalities.
In Britain alone, deaths and serious injuries were reduced by 42 per cent at 5,000 camera sites in four years.
SUMBER :
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/articles/13digi/Article/index_html
