The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday denied a report that it has decided to use the freeway electronic toll collection (ETC) system to crack down on speeding drivers, saying that it is still evaluating the feasibility of implementing such a measure.
The National Freeway Bureau can calculate how fast a vehicle is traveling on a highway by dividing the distance between two ETC gantries by the time it takes for the vehicle to travel between them.
The bureau last year said that it would only target freeway motorists who exceed the maximum speed limit by 60kph, which is considered a serious speeding offense under the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例).
The collected data would only be used to help the highway police identify road sections where speeding is most likely to occur and dispatch more personnel to those sections, the bureau said, adding that the highway police has the ultimate authority in fining speeding motorists.
The Chinese-language China Times yesterday reported that the ministry has decided to the put the data into more effective use by handing them over to the highway police as evidence for penalty.
The ministry proposed the measure after two highway police officers were killed last month after being hit by a truck while they were issuing a fine to another truck driver, the report said.
The measure was being reviewed by the legislature’s Transportation Committee, amid public complaints that it was another government measure to “rob drivers,” it said.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-tse (李昆澤) said he agreed that technology should be used to ensure the safety of highway police officers.
However, Far Eastern Electronic Toll Election Co, the contractor of the ETC system, is a private firm, and controversies would surely arise if it were given the authority to enforce the traffic regulations, Lee said.
The ministry should know that such a measure could spark concerns that the government is invading people’s privacy, he said, adding that the ministry should brief the members of the committee before enforcing the measure.
Road Traffic Safety Commission Executive Secretary Hsieh Ming-hong (謝銘鴻) said that the ministry is still evaluating if such a measure would be a feasible way to crack down on speeding drivers.
The measure is being considered not because the ministry wants to rob people, but to save people’s lives, Hsieh said.
Hsieh said that the ministry is working with the New Taipei City Police Department to use the average travel speed in the Wanli Tunnel (萬里隧道) as a way to gauge if a driver is speeding, which would officially be enforced on July 1.
“The Wanli Tunnel is known for its high accident rate. We have seen from the examples in other nations that the measure is effective in cracking down on speeding drivers. Since the police department has made the announcement, it has noticed that drivers have significantly reduced their speed inside the tunnel,” Hsieh said.
Hsieh said that the same measure would be implemented on roads and highways where traffic accidents frequently happen, including Suhua Highway (part of Highway No. 9) and Yangde Boulevard (仰德大道) on Yangmingshan in Taipei.
The ministry said it is planning to conduct a trial on freeways, where the ETC system’s license plate identification function would be utilized to crack down on traffic violators.
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