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‘Shocking’ images taken with AI camera of drivers using mobiles and not wearing seatbelts released
There's nowhere to hide now.
Emily Sergeant -
20th November 2024 
Thousands of people in Greater Manchester have been caught using mobile phones while driving or not wearing their seat belts.
Images captured by the state-of-the-art ‘Heads Up’ camera system – which uses a combination of artificial intelligence (AI) and human reviewers – as part of a trial in Greater Manchester, show drivers holding mobile phones in front of their face, to their ear while behind the wheel, and sometimes with passengers next to them.
According to Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM), in several cases, the cameras also found drivers and passengers, both passengers and children, not being securely fastened in their seats or not wearing seat belts at all.
The trial aims to detect drivers who are potentially breaking the law and putting themselves, their passengers, and other road users, at risk.
AI is used as the first filter in a bid to ensure privacy for “the vast majority of law-abiding motorists” while also checking hundreds of thousands of vehicles over an intermittent period, TfGM explained – something which would likely take a human reviewer several months to complete.
Images containing “evidence of an offence” then go through a two-stage human check to confirm that an offence has taken place.
Any offences detected as part of the trial were then passed on to Greater Manchester Police (GMP) to consider for further action, however if no offence was committed, the image was immediately deleted by the software.
More than 3,200 people have been caught using mobile phones while driving or not wearing seat belts as part of a trial of state-of-the-art cameras in Greater Manchester.
— Safer Roads Greater Manchester Partnership (@SaferRoadsGM) November 19, 2024
Find out more: https://t.co/XXqrgSUUYk#VisionZeroGM pic.twitter.com/8WISzXVUup
The trial – which was carried out by AECOM and Acusensus, on behalf of Safer Roads Greater Manchester – was held across the region throughout September and October to “gather data” and “understand the scale of the issue” to inform future education campaigns and enforcement.
It comes after it was revealed that nearly 10,000 people who live in, work in, or visit Greater Manchester have been killed or seriously injured on our roads over the last decade.
Read more:
- Cameras that automatically detect ‘distracted’ drivers to be trialled in Greater Manchester
- Drivers warned as more than 100 new ‘ultra’ speed cameras have been installed across Greater Manchester
- Greater Manchester’s Clean Air Zone cameras are now being used for ‘detecting crime’
During the deployment, the ‘Heads Up’ system recorded 812 drivers distracted by using mobile phones behind the wheel, and 2,393 incidents of seat belt non-compliance by drivers or passengers.
As it stands, no offenders have yet been prosecuted from this trial, TfGM confirmed.
Featured Image – TfGM
