RM500 million traffic fines under AES to be cancelled, says report

Putrajaya is looking into writing off more than 1.6 million traffic summonses worth almost RM500 million issued under the Automated Enforcement System (AES), TheSun reported today. Quoting a source, the report said pending charges against traffic offenders under the AES, which came into force in September, 2012, would most likely be dropped. The government, the source was reported as saying, was prepared to write off the offences issued during the pilot stages of the enforcement system and move on with the second phase. “Action under the pilot stage is plagued by a technicality arising from the evidence-gathering process which was not done by enforcement officers,” a source was quoted as saying. “The first party at the AES control centres, who had collated the high resolution photos of the alleged traffic offences, were staff of private companies. The first party role to gather the evidence should have been (carried out) by police or Road Transport Department enforcement officers and not private company staff. This is the cause of a legal setback.” The Road Transport Department (RTD) had previously said only some 200,000 summonses out of the total have been settled but without the power to blacklist those who don’t pay, the AES has become an ineffective tool to prevent speeding violations. There are 10 fixed and four mobile AES cameras in 14 accident-prone spots in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Perak. Under the AES, photographs and video images of vehicles flouting traffic rules are captured, before summonses are issued. The RTD had previously pledged to fix 831 cameras to catch speeding motorists and prevent more road deaths as part of the pilot phase of the AES project implemented in September 2012. However, three months later, the Attorney-General’s Chambers ordered a halt to all court proceedings related to summonses issued under the AES to study legal issues raised following a public outcry. Problems arose as police continued their enforcement against speeding motorists in parallel with the privatised AES, causing motorists to complain about being summoned twice. A handful challenged the summonses received under the AES in court, leading to the A-G’s order to freeze the blacklisting of offenders. This has been identified as a major stumbling block to the implementation of the second phase of AES, TheSun report said. “The massive number of outstanding court cases under AES phase one is like monkeys on the government’s back. We need to get it off now to avoid AES becoming a sunken ship,” a senior government official was quoted as saying. “The second AES rollout covering 350 locations by first quarter of 2016 will be like opening a new page. This time the government will make it right.” The official also noted that the government could return the paid fines to show that AES was not a money-making business but was implemented to save lives. – October 20, 2015.