Driving offences captured every 90 seconds by new AI motorway cameras on M6 Merseyside

Drivers on the M6 Merseyside, have been caught on camera either without a seat belt or on their mobile phones. Credit: National Highways

More than 750 drivers have been caught for either seat belt or mobile phone offences at just one site - making it the highest number ever recorded, National Highways says.

At one point a camera spotted an offence every 90 seconds on the short section of the M6 in Merseyside, compared to an average of one every six minutes at all other sites.

The pilot project has been across the country, collecting data on illegal mobile phone use while driving and drivers and passengers not wearing seatbelts. 

Over 100 people are injured or killed every year because the driver was distracted. Credit: National Highways

Jamie Hassall, National Highways manager for the data collection project, said: “We wanted to find out whether driving through a substantial section of roadworks with barriers, a reduced speed limit and other traffic management would mean drivers and passengers modifying their behaviour.

“The findings are disappointing to say the least with drivers spotted using a mobile phone almost every five minutes and lots of drivers and passengers simply not bothering to belt up. 

“Hopefully, these results will be a wake-up call to motorway users – especially as we head into the busy Christmas and New Year travel period.”

Each year between 25-30% of road deaths are linked to not wearing a seatbelt, and over 100 people are injured or killed because the driver was distracted. 

86% of offences being recorded by the cameras is in vans or HGVs. Credit: National Highways

However, motorways in England are amongst some of the safest in the world and National Highways are committed to reducing the number of deaths and serious injuries on these roads to zero by 2040.

To make this happen National Highways has been working alongside AECOM, an engineering company, on the pilot project.

Dr Jamie Uff, AECOM Technical Director who has been running the project on the ground, said: “We ran six short data collection sessions along the southbound M6 just outside National Highways’ regional operations centre at Newton-le-Willows and the numbers detected were far higher than expected. 

“The numbers of people killed or seriously injured as a result of these behaviours remain high. 

“The technology AECOM is deploying makes detection straightforward and is providing valuable insight to the police and policy makers on the current level of road user behaviour.

“Almost 60% of the mobile phone offences spotted were committed by car drivers, while seat belt offences were typically an issue associated with commercial vehicles, with 86 percent of the offences being committed by van or HGV occupants.”

National Highways and AECOM are committed to reduce the death and serious injury rate on motorways to zero by 2040 Credit: National Highways

The camera uses AI technology to capture the offences and then the images are then verified by human eyes. 

As the project continues, developers believe that there is potential for cameras to be able to look for over driving and traffic offences like unsecure loads, tailgating and eating at the wheel.

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