3,200 speeding cases in 24 hours in Goa

PANAJI: Motorists breaking the speed limit on Atal Setu will no longer be able to escape in a blur - the Goa police's traffic cell has installed four speed radars to detect violations. Two radars each have been set up on either side of Atal Setu.
"Once motorists are on Atal Setu, they will be on watch. Initially, this is just a trial. Soon, notices will follow," said SP traffic, North Goa, Bossuet Silva. Mounted on poles and linked to CCTV cameras, these speed radars were put to work on Tuesday evening and have detected 3,200 violations in a matter of 24 hours. On average, the radars monitor the speed of 32 to 48 vehicles simultaneously.
When a vehicle violates any traffic rule, the radars instruct the cameras to capture the image.
"When people know speed radars lie ahead, they slow down as they approach. Then, they speed up," Silva said. "With two speed radars on each pole, the maximum speed of the violators will be caught on the other radar and the camera."
Currently, the violations have been recorded within the local storage of the device. The technical team is pushing the data on the cloud overnight and the data is being presented to the traffic police on Thursday.
Based on the violations, in the future, a challan will be sent to the violator along with photographs from both the cameras, mentioning their average driving speed.
The fine for speeding under the new M V Act ranges between Rs 1,500 and Rs 4,000. The state recorded a rise of almost 9% in road accident figures in 2022 with 3,011 reported last year of which 253 were fatal, killing 271. The highest number of accidents in North Goa were reported in the jurisdiction of Panaji police (211) followed by Mapusa (182) and Porvorim (157) - all of which are connected via Atal Setu.