Saturday 16th April, 2011
MANILA (AFP) – Manila authorities are putting up pictures of speeding vehicles on an official website in an usual attempt to stop drivers breaking the law on the Philippine capital's sometimes hair-raising roads.
The snapshots, along with a listing of the speed of the vehicles and the time and date the photographs were taken, are designed to shame or even scare people into better driving.
The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority website
(http://mmda.gov.ph/Speeding-Violators.html), shows a succession of cars, vans and buses, with licence plates visible, as they are caught by anti-speeding cameras.
The chairman of the authority, Francis Tolentino, said in a statement the pictures were part of a new automated system where drivers are sent their speeding tickets later rather than being apprehended on the scene.
"Once captured by our cameras, there is no escape," Tolentino said.
More than 7,000 drivers have been caught on camera and sent tickets for exceeding the 60 kilometre (38-mile) per hour limit at that part of the metropolis, he added.
There has been a drop in the number of accidents on the highway as a result, he said without elaborating.
The automated picture system is only in force along the 12-kilometre Commonwealth Avenue, site of frequent accidents due to speeding.
But Tolentino said he is studying putting the system in place in other major highways in the bustling city of over 11 million people.