Cameras nab speedsters

Speed. (File)

Speed. (File)

Speeders will have to think twice when racing in Sea Point thanks to new cameras that were installed in the area to force motorists to stick to the speed limits.

Residents are up in arms with speeding cars which they say cause havoc in the area.

Resident Barry Gie says the noise and speeding along the Beach Road in Sea Point has become “intolerable”.

“It is also not an unusual occurrence to have thoughtless individuals play the car radios at high volume, from their parked cars, after midnight. There is a clear lack of traffic and police control. Loud revving cars are a plague and inconsiderate individuals are a curse.”

He says the new cameras are a welcome relief.

“The newly installed speed cameras will, hopefully, contribute to an improvement in a deteriorating situation and I am happy to see the traffic department taking the action that it has.”

Nicola Jowell, Ward 56 councillor, says the pilot project, which was endorsed and approved by the head of prosecutions, was initiated by the City’s traffic department following numerous complaints regarding speeding vehicles in the area.

“The purpose is to reassure residents that the ongoing issues of both speeding vehicles and also noisy vehicles continue to receive attention from an operational and also planning perspective.”

Jowell did not specify where the cameras were placed.

“I cannot provide information on the number of cameras nor locations that are currently in the area or planned in this project.”

Eric Ntabazalila, spokesperson for the Western Cape National Prosecuting Authority, says the directors of public prosecutions were approached by the City of Cape Town for permission to conduct a pilot project for speed-checking in the Atlantic Seaboard area.

He says the request, according to the traffic department, was prompted by numerous complaints received from residents.

“Permission was granted to do speed-checking to provide a report at the end of August this year at which time, depending on the report, the traffic department will lodge a formal application to do speed law enforcement in this area. In any matter where traffic authorities wish to obtain permission to do speed law enforcement by means of a camera, they need to provide a detailed application, which, inter alia, gives the speed profiles for the roads they apply for.”

Maxine Bezuidenhout, spokesperson for the City’s traffic service, says the project is part of the City’s efforts to address ongoing complaints about speeding and poor driver behaviour in the area. She says to mitigate the risk of compromising the project she’s unable to divulge any further details.

“The Sea Point and Green Point area is one of the hotspot areas for illegal street racing. The City’s traffic service conducts ongoing enforcement operations in the area, as well as other hotspots around the metropole.”

Bezuidenhout says in January this year the ghost squad unit conducted 11 operations in Sea Point where seven people were arrested for reckless and negligent driving, two for participating in illegal street racing and two for excessive speed.

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