News

The Kent and Medway Safety Camera Partnership's camera vans will be enforcing mobile phone and seat belt offences on a permanent basis, as well as speeding motorists, from 5 October.

The penalty for speeding is 3 penalty points and £60 fine, the same as for using a mobile phone. Not wearing a seatbelt carries a £60 fine.

Ian Procter, Chairman of the Partnership, said: "Our camera operators witness offences other than speeding being committed at camera sites. Safety cameras are positioned where people have been killed or seriously injured, so by reducing the number of offences at these sites we hope to lower casualties even further."

Roadside surveys carried out in Kent showed that one in ten motorists were not wearing a seat belt, and around one per cent of drivers were using a mobile phone  although the actual figure is likely to be higher.

Chief Inspector Roscoe Walford of Kent Police said: "This activity is in addition to the enforcement already carried out by Kent Police Officers, which itself has doubled in the last two years. There are four main factors that contribute to collisions that end with serious consequences - speeding, being distracted (for example talking on the telephone), not wearing a seat belt and drink driving. The use of camera vans will help address three out of these four factors."