Drivers fined incorrectly as a consequence of defective cameras | UK | News | EUROtoday

Thousands of motorists throughout the UK have been fined incorrectly after a “technical issue” noticed some velocity cameras triggered up to now few years – regardless of the automobile concerned not breaking the velocity restrict.

National Highways has apologised for the error which, it mentioned, meant a “very small number” of drivers had been fined by no fault of their very own since 2021.

It is known a software program replace created an issue with variable velocity cameras on some A roads and motorways that led to drivers being incorrectly detected as dashing after the velocity restrict had elevated.

National Highways chief government Nick Harris mentioned: “Safety is our number one priority and we have developed a fix for this technical anomaly to maintain the highest levels of safety on these roads and make sure no one is wrongly prosecuted.”

The company mentioned it had recognized round 2,650 incorrect digital camera activations since 2021, lower than two per day.

Not all of these can have resulted in fines as digital camera activations will not be at all times enforced, and the whole quantities to lower than 0.1% of the 6 million activations in the identical interval.

The problem affected 10% of motorways and A roads in England, and National Highways is working to implement an answer to the issue as quickly as attainable.

Anyone who has been incorrectly fined will probably be contacted immediately by the police, the company mentioned, with fines reimbursed and any factors faraway from their licence.

Police forces have briefly stopped issuing fines from variable cameras till they’ve confidence no person will probably be wrongly prosecuted, however proceed to implement velocity limits in different methods.

A spokesperson for the Department for Transport mentioned: “We apologise to anyone who has been affected. Safety was never compromised, and we are working with policing to ensure nobody is incorrectly prosecuted in future.

“Enforcement is still in place, and the public can remain confident that only motorists who break the rules will be penalised.”

A spokesperson for the National Police Chiefs’ Council mentioned police forces had been working to determine and make contact with “a very limited number of motorists”.

They added: “Policing enforces a range of offences, including speeding, on the strategic road network through a number of tactics including mobile camera deployments, roads policing patrols and average speed sites. This remains unchanged.

“If you are affected by this issue, you will be contacted and details of the compensation scheme will be shared in due course. You do not need to take any action.”