MORE Speed Trap Cameras in Costa Rica

More speed trap cameras might be going into service this year

SOURCE:  AMCostaRica.com March 7, 2013 Highway officials say they will have a final decision April 15 on a proposal to place more traffic surveillance cameras on four major highways. They said that the plan will reduce accidents by 60 percent and deaths by 90 percent. The proposal is being put forward by Radiográfica Costarricense S.A., which will provide the electronic hookups. Initially the project will place 18 cameras on the General Cañas highway from San José to the airport, on the Florencio del Castillo highway, on the Circunvalación and on the main highway in Alajuela. Eventually the Consejo Nacional de Vialidad plans to install

150 cameras in the first four years beginning with the initial batch going into operation in December. Eventually some 150 will be in service by March 2017, according to the plan. The cameras mainly will monitor speed and there by reduce accidents, according to the plan. The road agency put cameras into service on key routes in 2011, but the project was defeated by a number of court actions. Not the least of the arguments was that speeding tickets were being awarded to the owners of vehicles whose license plates had been photographed by the automatic cameras. The agency stopped the use of the cameras at the end of that year and have repeatedly promised to put them back into service.