Speed camera fines to be reviewed

The fines for drivers caught overspeeding with speed cameras will no longer be automatically Lm30, as the law will shortly be changed.

Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg said motorists who are caught driving over the speed limit by a few kilometres will be liable to a fine of Lm15 and those who really overspeed will be fined Lm30.

The change will come into effect shortly and has been brought about following discussions with the committee on local enforcement.

Speed cameras bagged over 38,500 cars in the year up to last June. The biggest number of overspeeding cases, 12,542, were detected at St Julian's, followed by 8,359 on the Mriehel bypass and 5,840 at Attard.

Tickets for overspeeding have been contested in court by motorists for various reasons. Calibration of the cameras was one of the issues.

But last March, a motorist was cleared of speeding on the Regional Road in St Julian's after the local tribunal noted that the citation, which he received by post, did not include the reason why he had not been served on the spot.

The driver was cleared because Legal Notice 350 of 2004 stated that if a notice was not handed down to the driver at the time the traffic offence was committed, the officer was to ensure that the notice was mailed within two days.

The legal notice also stated that the mailed notice was to: "Include all the facts that led the authorised officer to issue the notice, and also the reasons why the notice was not served at the time the person was detected committing the act..."

The citation usually contains a photograph snapped by the speed camera but gives no reason why the driver had not been served with the notice on the spot. This rendered the notice null as it was not sent according to law.