Experts back move to buy speed cameras

Experts back move to buy speed cameras

A police officer looks at a speed camera. Plans are under deliberation to buy state-of-the-art cameras as currently used in the UK and the US. (Pattanapong Hirunard)
A police officer looks at a speed camera. Plans are under deliberation to buy state-of-the-art cameras as currently used in the UK and the US. (Pattanapong Hirunard)

Road safety experts have voiced their support for a plan to buy state-of-the-art speed cameras, as used in the UK and the US, to help reduce the country's sky-high accident rate.

The call comes at a time when an earlier approved purchase of overpriced radar guns remains under a cloud of suspicion.

Of the total number of road accidents recorded between 2008 and 2015 by the Royal Thai Police, 80% were related to speeding. In 2015 alone, a total of 809,341 arrests were made for breaking the speed limit, though the figure is set to break a million this year, a seminar was told this week.

Pol Gen Teeraphol Thipjaroen, the commander of the Phuket Provincial Police, said that since the Thai Roads Foundation began providing officers with modern equipment to catch speeding drivers, the number of accidents and traffic violations on the island had halved.

"Modern speed cameras support police work as they can record speed and licence plates and electronically transmit this information to the municipality to process," Pol Gen Teeraphol said.

"The damage and loss of life annually costs the country around 3% of our GDP, or around 420 billion baht," he added.

The mobile speed cameras used in Phuket cost 970,000 baht apiece. Their capabilities exceed those of other cameras bought by the governments in the past 20 years as they can detect speeding motorcyclists.

The campaign for more high-tech equipment follows a cabinet decision in October to approve the purchase of 849 handheld speed guns for a total of 573 million baht. At 674,000 baht apiece, the units were said to cost at least five times the market price for such equipment.

The request came from the Interior Ministry's Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, which has no traffic enforcement authority.

Gen Anupong Paojinda, the interior minister, signed off on the request but admitted he had not looked into it in much detail. After a brief flurry of public outrage, the story faded away.

Pol Maj Gen Eakkarak Limsanggas, the commander of the Special Branch Police 3, said the country had around 200,000km of roads and only 1,000 traffic officers, which hampers efforts to enforce road safety.

"We are seeing stricter laws, such as driving with no licence leading to a prison sentence of up to three months, from one month previously. Weak penalties have led to a number of drivers being willing to take the risk of being arrested," he said.

Around 50% of people who use cars in Thailand drive over the speed limit, with a total of 280 million baht in fines last year. Of the fines, 50% goes to each municipality, 2.5% for administration fees and the rest is reward money for the police. "We can adjust this structure to help pay for new equipment," said Pol Maj Gen Eakkarak.

Using more technology to make arrests will reduce corruption and bribery, he said, as identifying speeding vehicles and printing tickets leaves no room for police and offenders to meet.

Thailand has the world's second-worst road fatality rate per 100,000 population, behind only Libya, according to a World Health Organization study.

But solving road safety problems requires both the acquisition of new technologies to support enforcement and improving police capabilities to serve traffic law offenders with legal documents, said a prominent trauma specialist.

"Statistics continue to show only 4% of people who violate traffic laws pay their fines, and only 20% of them are given tickets due to constraints on resources. This must not be overlooked if we are going to buy more equipment," said Dr Wittaya Chatbunchachai, director of the Trauma and Critical Care Centre with the WHO Collaborating Centre for Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion.

Kunnawee Kanitpong, head of the Thailand Accident Research Center, added: "Countries such as the UK where road safety standards are very high simultaneously use at least two types of speed detecting systems in each designated area to ensure vehicles remain under the speed limit at all times. They also have very large fines with a minimum of £100 (4,400 baht) and a maximum of £1,000 for violations."

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