Overview
The objective of the project is the installation of cameras on roads. The purpose of installing the cameras is to calm the traffic and reduce the number of accidents. Cameras keep speeding under control and help to make sure that drivers stay within permitted speed limits on dangerous road sections, thus making traffic safer and reducing the number of road accidents. Cameras have a preventive and disciplining effect. Drivers know that there are cameras for speed limit enforcement installed on certain road sections and that exceeding the permitted speed limit will not go undetected.
Locations have been chosen based on the statistics of road accidents with human casualties in the past five years, traffic volume, the speed of vehicles on that section, access to electricity and local environmental conditions. Traffic signs informing road users of speed cameras will be installed on the appropriate road sections.
The Estonian Road Administration can use 45 measuring systems in the boxes. The systems are rearranged from time to time.
Cameras record the speed of all passing vehicles. If some of the vehicles exceed the permitted speed limit, the camera will take a picture of the vehicle and its driver. All recorded data (including the photo) will be sent to the proceedings centre of the police, where the person authorised to use the motor vehicle will be identified based on the licence plate of the car as seen on the photo.
If a speeding camera has automatically detected someone exceeding the permitted speed limit, a penalty notice will be put together for the person authorised to use the motor vehicle. The notice is usually signed digitally. The penalty notice includes a payment order and a pre-filled contestation form.
The intervention threshold of cameras for speed limit enforcement is the speed starting from which a picture is taken of the vehicle and a cautionary fine is sent to the driver. The intervention threshold includes both the expanded measurement uncertainty of the camera and the agreed permissible error allowed for the driver.
Funding
Results
Based on the experience of other countries, speed cameras help reduce the number of road accidents with human casualties by approximately 20%. High speeds account for about 20% of road deaths, meaning that speeding causes about 8500 deaths per year.