The top speeder, who drives often in southern Brooklyn, has been caught speeding by school zone speed cameras more than 1,000 times since mid-2023, according to new data from Transportation Alternatives and Families For Safe Streets.
In Australia the owner of the vehicle is presumed responsible. The owner must provide a statutory declaration (legal document that is punishable by jail time if you are caught lying on one) that the vehicle was being driven by someone else.
However, camera images are now good enough that it’s easy to match face of driver with drivers license photo these days.
The only way to avoid demerit points is to register the car to a business, and the registered owner must sign a stat Dec confirming that they have no records of who was driving the car at the time, in which case demerit points are omitted and the fine is doubled.
So business owners here register their personal vehicles as company cars and pay extra licensing fees and double speeding fines to avoid demerits and losing their license. $400 - $1600+for a demerit-worthy speed. During public holidays, like Christmas, demerits and fines are doubled. So a business owner driving 100 in a 60 zone can pay $3200 if flashed by a camera on Christmas or Easter.
Most of the cameras in the UK take photos from the back presumably to avoid the flash blinding the driver and/or to get motorcycles that only have a plate on the back. That means that we can’t rely on the photo to know who was driving.
You could also theoretically have a system that confiscated a car once it has accumulated X points, no matter who was driving. I bet you’d be careful to whom you lend your car, and would teach your teens strictly!
In the UK, they write to the registered keeper of the vehicle to ask who was driving.
If the keeper doesn’t respond or doesn’t know who was driving then they get the fine and points themselves.
In Australia the owner of the vehicle is presumed responsible. The owner must provide a statutory declaration (legal document that is punishable by jail time if you are caught lying on one) that the vehicle was being driven by someone else.
However, camera images are now good enough that it’s easy to match face of driver with drivers license photo these days.
The only way to avoid demerit points is to register the car to a business, and the registered owner must sign a stat Dec confirming that they have no records of who was driving the car at the time, in which case demerit points are omitted and the fine is doubled.
So business owners here register their personal vehicles as company cars and pay extra licensing fees and double speeding fines to avoid demerits and losing their license. $400 - $1600+for a demerit-worthy speed. During public holidays, like Christmas, demerits and fines are doubled. So a business owner driving 100 in a 60 zone can pay $3200 if flashed by a camera on Christmas or Easter.
Most of the cameras in the UK take photos from the back presumably to avoid the flash blinding the driver and/or to get motorcycles that only have a plate on the back. That means that we can’t rely on the photo to know who was driving.
That seems reasonable.
You could also theoretically have a system that confiscated a car once it has accumulated X points, no matter who was driving. I bet you’d be careful to whom you lend your car, and would teach your teens strictly!