Reckless speeding is being tackled head-on on one of the Cape’s most notorious roads, often described as a “road of death”.
The Western Cape’s fourth “speed-over-distance” system has been launched to snare those who break the law this summer.
Siphesihle Dube, spokesman for Transport MEC Robin Carlisle, explained that the Average Speed Over Distance system calculated and then determined the time it took a vehicle to travel from the first camera to a second camera.
“Reaching point B (the second camera) in a time shorter than that determined by the distance and the speed limit, means that the driver was speeding,” he said.
The first of these systems was introduced in October 2011.
It covered 71.6km of the R61 from Beaufort West to Aberdeen. The second became operational in December 2012 on the N1 from Beaufort West to Three Sisters, covering 31.7km.
The third was switched on in October this year, over 57.2km of the R27 on the West Coast - and now the fourth installation runs between Beaufort West to Laingsburg, covering 190.6km.
Dube said the previous three had seen “a substantial decrease in road fatalities”.
Carlisle said: “This fourth phase of the project means that a total of 351.1km of the province’s deadliest roads are now covered by the average speed over distance camera enforcement system.
“What were previously notorious stretches of road for speeding and road deaths are now seeing more compliance with speed limits, and less deaths; fatalities on the stretches covered by this system, have decreased.” - Cape Argus