TALLINN – The National Road Administration conducted its first tests of speed cameras it intends to install on roads where speeding is notorious. The devices, each of which costs 1 million kroons (64,000 euros), combines speed cameras and photo equipment that can capture the face of the driver and the car's license number.
The metal boxes that will supposedly contain the devices will be installed in more places than there are cameras available, and the locations will be changed on a regular basis, the traffic police said.
"Drivers will be brought to discipline namely by the fact that it isn't known where the devices are located," Tonis Sulu, chief superintendent of the traffic supervision unit of Estonia's VIP protection police, was quoted by Baltic News Service as saying.
Exactly how many speed cameras will be bought or rented depends on both the available funds and locations – where the necessary electricity and connection cables are located.
"I think that as part of the pilot project the cameras should be first installed on the Tallinn-Tartu road. But no final choice has been made yet," said Harri Kuusk, deputy director general of the National Road Administration.
In Sulu's opinion, police should mete out bigger fines than average for speeding near schools and on roads in rain and snow.
A camera at a railway bridge in Tartu has been taking pictures of traffic for three days already.
The company that sells the cameras, Est-Doma, initially wanted to test the devices in the capital too, but there is no bridge low enough on a major road where the camera could be situated less than eight-and-a-half meters from the surface of the road.
In Vilnius three speed cameras have been in use in 26 different locations for almost a year now.
