The UK manager of road safety technology company Acusensus says the first long-term use of its distracted driving enforcement solution in the UK is “great news” for drivers.
Geoff Collins, who leads the Australian business’s operations here has agreed a twelve-month operation using trailers across Devon and Cornwall, working with the police, Vision Zero South West and supported by AECOM. The “Heads Up” equipment uses specially equipped cameras with technology to see through the windscreen and into the vehicle, identifying cases where people are using their phones or not wearing a seatbelt as they drive past.
“We have been running short-term proof-of-concept programmes across the country for two years now,” Mr Collins explained, “But this is the first time we have a long-term operational scheme to monitor and enforce dangerous driving on our roads. Safe drivers who buckle up and leave their phones alone will welcome the installations, because they’re there to spot the dangerous minority who think they can ignore the rules, creating a hazard for everyone.”
The cameras are optimised to flag up likely violations, using advanced AI software that analyses images in near real time. When the software identifies a possible case of distracted driving or of vehicle occupants not wearing a seatbelt, anonymised images are sent to a UK based secure cloud for human review, which validates if a potential offence has occurred. A further secondary check then allows for the creation of an offence file, which can be used by the police for prosecution, and indeed has as part of the early trials.
Mr Collins continued: “Much of the work we have done so far has been using the “Heads Up” units to gather data on the scale of the problem on our roads. This installation in Devon and Cornwall is great news for safe drivers because it will lead to prosecutions or re-education of offenders which will have a long-term effect on changing driver behaviour and reducing needless death and serious injury on our roads”.
In a two-week test in Devon and Cornwall earlier this year, the cameras detected 408 seatbelt offences and 162 mobile phone-related infractions at a single location, demonstrating the scale of the problem to be addressed. Statistics from Australia show that the first state-wide scheme rolled out in New South Wales in 2019 led to the number of mobile phone detections dropping by a factor of 6 (1 in 82 drivers in 2019 to 1 in 478 drivers in 2021). Subsequent Acusensus programmes in other Australian states have similarly shown positive changes in behaviour.
The Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety says that three in ten vehicle occupants killed in road collisions were found to not be wearing a seatbelt, while the DfT’s Think! campaign points out that a driver is four times more likely to crash if using a mobile phone whilst they are driving.
(Picture – Acusensus)
