Thousands of speeding fines could be cancelled after ‘technical issue’ | Motoring
Thousands of speeding tickets could be canceled in England due to a “technical issue” that caused some speed cameras to incorrectly penalize drivers.
National Highways has apologized for the error, which means a “very small number” of motorists have been wrongly fined since 2021.
A software update is thought to have caused problems with variable speed cameras on some A-roads and motorways; This means drivers are incorrectly detected as speeding after the speed limit has been increased.
The minimum penalty for speeding is a £100 fine and three demerit points.
National Highways chief executive Nick Harris said: “Safety is our number one priority and we have developed a solution to address this technical anomaly to keep safety on these roads at the highest level and ensure no one is unfairly prosecuted.”
National Highways said it had detected around 2,650 faulty camera activations since 2021, amounting to less than two per day and accounting for less than 0.1% of the 6 million activations over the same period.
The issue has affected 10% of motorways and A-roads in England and the agency is working to implement a solution to the problem as soon as possible.
Anyone wrongly fined will be contacted directly by the police, fines will be refunded and points will be removed from their licence.
Police forces have temporarily stopped issuing fines from floating cameras until they can be sure no one will be unfairly prosecuted.
A Department for Transport spokesman said: “We apologize to everyone affected. Safety has never been compromised and we are working with the police to ensure no one is unfairly prosecuted in the future.
“Sanctions are still in force and the public can be assured that only drivers who break the rules will be punished.”
A spokesman for the National Police Chiefs’ Council said police forces were working to identify and contact a “very limited number of drivers”.
They added: “Police enforce a range of crimes, including speeding, across the strategic road network through a range of tactics including mobile camera deployments, road police patrols and average speed zones.
“This will not change. If you are affected by this issue you will be contacted and details of the compensation plan shared in due course.”
