Information from Go Safe – the Wales Road Casualty Reduction Partnership relating to the average speed cameras – M4 Gwent (@ 7 December 2010)
- From 1 September 2009 to 30 September 2010, 6547 Notices of Intended Prosecution were issued as a result of offences recorded by the average speed cameras on the M4 in Gwent.
- To date, 2321 have paid the £60 fine and received three penalty points on their licence.
- 660 have been referred to court (either for driving 26mph or more above the posted speed limit or failing to nominate the driver). These offences are now dealt with by HMCS (Her Majesty’s Court Service).
- 1112 have been offered a speed awareness course.
- 753 offences were cancelled (emergency vehicles, mitigating circumstances etc).
- 1701 are currently ongoing*.
- *Central Ticket Office has six months to conclude a case. They have 14 clear days from the day the offence is recorded to issue the Notice of Intended Prosecution (NIP). The recipient of the NIP then has 28 days to respond with details of the driver. If they were not the driver, a new NIP is then issued to the nominated driver and they have 28 days to respond (bear in mind that many of the vehicles driving along the M4 will be company cars so more than one NIP will be issued to determine the driver). Once a driver admits responsibility for the offence, either a Conditional Offer of Fixed Penalty Notice is issued or the matter referred to court. If a driver is not nominated, the matter will also be referred to court for the offence of failing to supply the name and address of the driver.
- Since the cameras went live, a top speed of 95mph has been recorded.
- When you consider that more than 43 million vehicles have passed through this stretch of road since the camera went live (approx 110,000 a day), this figure represents a tiny fraction of traffic driving through.
- Average speeds have dropped to 49.4mph since the cameras were introduced. The cameras will be removed once the roadworks are completed and replaced with a variable speed limit system.
- Jim Moore, manager of Wales Road Casualty Reduction Partnership, said: “It is encouraging to see that, on the whole, motorists are complying with the reduced speed limit of 50mph while important roadworks take place and we hope that this compliance continues over the next few months while work is completed for the safety of motorists and the roadworkers, who are operating day and night.”