Coming to Hertfordshire sometime soon…..

The Acusensus ‘Heads-Up’ cameras have been used at different locations around the two counties over the past three years as part of ongoing trials supported by Devon & Cornwall Police and the Vision Zero South West road safety partnership.

The systems use two cameras to take high-speed front-facing and overhead images of vehicles, with AI used to detect any potential seatbelt or mobile phone offences. The images are then verified in the UK by at least two human reviewers to determine whether an offence has taken place.

If an offence has been correctly identified, the driver will either be sent a warning letter or a notice of intended prosecution, depending on the severity.

As the cameras reach the milestone of 10,000 offences detected in the past year, new figures indicate the systems are having a significant effect on road user behaviour.

Data from the cameras during August 2024 shows a 50% decrease in seatbelt detections and a 33% decrease in mobile phone detections at three different locations during the course of the month.

Adrian Leisk, Devon & Cornwall Police’s head of road safety, says the longer-term effects are also looking very promising.

He said: “We used the cameras at the same location on the A38 at Landrake during 2023, 2024 and 2025. The year-on-year data shows a prolonged and significant reduction in both seatbelt and mobile phone offences, which is really encouraging.

“It’s important to say that the vast majority of motorists are complying with the rules – in fact, less than 1% of the vehicles we monitored using the Acusensus cameras were detected as committing offences.

“However, the dangers associated with these offences are well documented. Around a third of all fatal collisions nationally involve someone who wasn’t wearing a seatbelt – and not wearing one means you are twice as likely to die in the event of a serious collision.

“Using a mobile phone behind the wheel also significantly increases your chances of being involved in a collision, with the distraction impairing both your judgment and reaction times.

This will be rolled out across the country in the not too distant future.