1,000 more speed cameras on roads

JANUARY’S heavy road death toll has sparked an immediate reaction from interior minister Brice Hortefeux, who has promised a “thousand extra speed cameras” by 2012.

The government had already announced an extra 800 speed cameras by 2012, including 400 in 2011, and 100 average-speed systems.

The moves come after January’s toll of 331 dead, a rise of 21.2 per cent over January 2010. Mr Hortefeux said he wanted the measures to “reinforce motorists’ uncertainty about whether they had been caught”.

Last month he hailed the existing system as a vindication of the government’s road safety policies after the 2010 toll fell below 4,000, the best figures since records started in 1949.

The new plans also include 90 latest-generation systems that can tell the difference between lorries and smaller vehicles and say which vehicle committed the offence. This will lead to thousands of extra fines; at present, camera pictures with a lorry and a car in the same shot are rejected.

Mobile camera units will also be increased: Mr Hortefeux said mobile gendarme car and motorcycle units were currently catching 140 motorists a month.

The fines themselves are also being standardised and 24,000 electronic terminals will be issued to police so details of offences can be sent to the central processing unit in Rennes and the ticket issued from there. Drivers may not know they have been caught until the ticket is delivered.

School students and senior citizens will also be targeted. A road safety module is part of the curriculum of each lycée from this year’s Rentrée and the government is looking, with insurance companies, at special update training for older drivers.

Road death toll falls below 4,000