Speed+Cameras


 * Speed Cameras lucrative to the Authorities **

A single temporary camera on the A1(M) southbound, between junctions four and three in Hertfordshire, captured an average of 789 drivers a month. If each driver received a £60 fixed penalty, that would raise £568,080 a year, making it the most profitable camera. In second place was a fixed camera on the A3 on Anglesea Road in Portsmouth, which caught an average of 537 motorists a month, or £387,000 a year. Third place went to a site on the A40 Western Avenue in London, where 499 speeders per month were found, on average, making an estimated £359,000 in fines. A camera on the M11 in Essex, where Chris Huhne, the Energy Secretary, was caught and allegedly asked his ex-wife to take his penalty points, caught an average of 176 motorists a month.

The worst-performing speed trap was one on the A348 in Ferndown, Dorset, which caught no speeders in three years. The compilation of figures was derived using Government information, found the most perilous route for fines was a 12-mile stretch of seafront in Brighton, East Sussex, which is lined with 11 cameras that caught 18,045 drivers in three years. Britain has around 6,000 speed cameras, which generate £100m a year in tickets.

One of the inventors of speed cameras was Maurice Gatsonides, a Dutch rally driver who developed the “Gatso” camera as a training tool to improve his cornering speed.