A demerit point system is becoming law and every driver will be
awarded 12 points. Should those points be lost within 12 months, the
licence will be suspended. After three suspensions, the licence will be
cancelled. Over 50 infringements from parking to speeding will be
listed. Judging from press reports it is doubtful if driving conditions
will become safer: "All Driver Licences Issued Since 1994 Investigated
by Scorpions" and "50% of New Drivers Since 1998 Have Dud Licences" says
Transport Minister Jeff Radebe.
The laser gun offers formidable specifications: acquisition time of 0.3
seconds; speed accuracy +-2 kmh; range distance 15m to 1200m; range
distance accuracy 150mm; speed range 0 – 320kmh & beam divergence 3
milliradians nominal. It speed-measures incoming and outgoing vehicles
with equal ease. Camera equipped, it digitally photographs the
offending vehicle & record location, date, time, vehicle’s speed and
distance, plus others – within 0.9 seconds.
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| Trapping from the Front | And from the Rear |
From the graphics below the gun’s footprint is captured at various distances: at 400m as used in the US, the laser’s footprint of 120cm covers the complete width of the vehicle.
At 50m as used in SA, the footprint is only 15cm. If this ‘hit’ is outside the ambit of the diffuser’s capacity, it will not ‘see’ the pulse and unable to counter same.
Conventional diffusers therefore achieve a low success rate against laser-cam hits from short distances.As reported on TV, one camera generated R16m in 12 months and thus lucrative sources of revenue.
Example of a typical laser beam spread over distance. Note the small
laser
footprint of 15cm at 50m - as experienced when laser camera trapping,
virtually impossible for the diffuser to 'see' and jam.