THE SEVEN mobile traffic cameras will be up and running in no time, the government said yesterday.
The cameras had been temporarily shut down after a software glitch, as suppliers’ technicians yesterday went to work figuring out the problem.
“The problem is purely software-based,” explained Makis Constantinides, permanent secretary of the Communications and Works Ministry.
He said there were two things: one was with the memory of the disks, which could not store as much data as provided for in the contract – which translates into roughly 5,000 records of traffic offences. The other concerned the downloading of data by the police server from individual cameras.
“These problems did not affect the reliability of the system, only the processing of the information,” Constantinides told the Mail.
“For instance, all it meant is that we had to replace disks more often to store the same volume of data.”
“And we should say that this concerns only the seven mobile cameras, not the fixed ones. Those are working fine.”
Currently, 33 fixed cameras have been activated on the streets of Cyprus, and another 100 are slated to be installed for next year. The system is being piloted to see whether it satisfies the requirements of the police and meets the criteria spelled out in a 6.5 million euro contract with the German manufacturers.
The government says it has not paid the company a single cent yet, and reserves the right to cancel the contract if it falls short of expectations.
Asked whether the hitch with the mobile cameras constituted a deal-breaker, Constantinides said this was the decision of a special technical committee, not the ministries.
“It’s a legal issue of course, but right now it’s looking good: by tomorrow [today] the mobile cameras should be back on the streets.”
Other minor issues should also be sorted out, said Stavros Othonos, director of the Electromechanical Services.
“Sometimes the disks would read full, when actually they were not. And in certain instances – not always – the software couldn’t distinguish between data recorded from, say, yesterday and today.”
Meanwhile the police have said that, pilot programme or no pilot programme, all fines will be delivered to the transgressing motorists.
A whopping 20,000 traffic offences have been recorded since the system was switched on in early October.
The software bugs were the latest in a series of hiccups with the system, which initially was supposed to go operational in March, only to be pushed back to July.
And once the system was launched, the sheer bulk of fines made it next to impossible for the police to hand-deliver them to homes, so from now on the tickets will be sent by registered post.
Upon receipt of the notice, the wayward driver has 15 days in which to pay the fine at his local police station.
