California could be about to get a new weapon in the battle against speeding drivers and it’s not a Challenger SRT Demon 170 or a new helicopter. A bill allowing six cities in the state to install fixed, automated speed cameras has already passed, and now only needs Governor Gavin Newsom’s signature to become law.
Assembly Bill 645 wants to give Los Angeles, Long Beach, Glendale, San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose the right to set up pilot schemes that would deploy speed camera machines close to schools, in areas with known street racing problems, and at dangerous intersections to help cut road deaths and traffic-related injuries.
Tickets would be automatically generated without a police officer needing to be present using software that measures a vehicle’s speed, reads its license plate and identifies the registered driver. Offenders would get a warning for their first violation, after which they’d be fined $50 for being snapped at 11 mph (18 km/h) over the posted limit, $100 for 16 mph (26 km/h) over, $200 for a 26 mph (42 km/h) transgression and $500 for exceeding the limit by 100 mph (161 km/h).
Related: Corvette C7’s Engine Was Completely Torn Out Of The Car In California Street Race Crash
$500? Really? Is that it? Try busting a limit by 100 mph in Europe, where fixed speed cameras have been a fact of life for decades, and you’d be facing a four-figure fine and three months in the slammer. Anyway, the plan is for the pilot programs to run for five years, after which time, if judged successful, they’d be rolled out to other Californian cities. Revenue raised from ticket payments would be used to create safer roads, the state says.
Data from the National Transportation Safety Board shows that more than 112,000 people died from a speed-related crash between 2005 and 2014, while Los Angeles – where traffic deaths are the leading cause of death of people under the age of 30 – suffered 312 fatalities in 2022 alone.