In Moscow they began to fine for unbelted passengers

The city authorities plan to use traffic cameras to punish car passengers who do not wear a seat belt. Fine in the amount of 1 thousand rubles. the owner of the car will receive it. The Moscow City Hall on Thursday promised to “interpret any doubts in favor of the owner of the transport.” This statement was made against the backdrop of cases actively discussed on social networks when the traffic police were unable to recognize a seat belt against the background of the driver’s dark clothes, as well as fines for owners of vintage cars where safety features are not provided at all.

As reported on Thursday Moscow deptrans, facts of violation, when car passengers do not use a seat belt, have been recorded by 206 cameras in the capital since September 21 (in total there are more than 3.8 thousand complexes in the capital). The neural network determines whether the seat belt is fastened. Fine in the amount of 1 thousand rubles. sent to the owner of the car from the traffic police. Traffic regulations prohibit the driver from transporting passengers who are not wearing seat belts.

The capital authorities, using automatic fixation systems, have been fining drivers for the violation in question since 2020. 6.7 million administrative orders were issued.

Other regions are also adopting the experience. At the same time, social network users regularly talk about what they claim are erroneous fines – for example, when a belt blended in with dark clothing in a photo or was not visible under the lapel of a jacket.

Attempts to appeal decisions are not always successful. Fines also come to owners of vehicles where the seat belt cannot be seen in the photo. For example, in the first generation Ford Mustang, the seat belt is installed at lumbar level. As for vintage cars, there is no belt provided at all (for example, GAZ-21 or Moskvich cars from the 1970s). But the owners of such cars also receive letters of happiness.

It should be noted that in 2022, the Sverdlovsk region became the first region where they began to fine a passenger for not fastening his seat belt. A curious incident that occurred in this region about a year ago became widely known: the camera software mistook a stuffed cat glued to the windshield for a passenger, and the traffic police sent a fine to the owner. Later, the department admitted the mistake and the decision was canceled.

“TsODD will consider every case with signs of violation, and any doubts will always be interpreted in favor of the owner of the transport,” Moscow Deputy Mayor Maxim Liksutov promised on Thursday.

“The decision to introduce a new administration was made jointly with the State Traffic Inspectorate, including at the federal level,” they told Kommersant at the Moscow Traffic Control Center. “The experience of using cameras to identify unbelted drivers was also taken into account. In addition, the most successful installation sites for the complexes in terms of the quality of photographic materials were determined. Only when all these points were completed did we launch the commit.”

The risks when checking the seat belt of passengers are the same as for drivers – a subjective assessment of the inspector, on the basis of which he decides whether there is a belt or not, Grigory Shukhman, an expert on photo and video recording systems, explained to Kommersant. “And this depends on the contrast of the belt relative to the clothing, including in the dark in the infrared range, when the result may be different than in visible light,” he explains. “The passenger, on the one hand, does not have a steering wheel or dashboard in front , covering most of the driver’s belt, there is less risk of error. On the other hand, passengers are not prohibited from keeping things on their laps.” Note that on some marketplaces today you can already order T-shirts with an imitation seat belt; they cost about 1 thousand rubles.

“From a technical point of view, there are no obstacles to recording such violations; existing photo-video recording complexes are capable of doing this,” says the OKO association (unites camera manufacturers and operators). “For example, photo-video recording complexes in the Moscow region, neural networks are also trained for this, but fines for violations are still are not taken out. The decision is made by the traffic police in each specific region.”

OKO does not rule out that in the future the systems will begin to recognize failure to maintain a safe distance, violation of rules for transporting goods, including by cars, as well as violations of traffic rules by drivers of electric scooters and SIMs.

The data center recalled plans to use cameras to record the noise level from cars and motorcycles (“Kommersant” talked about this), in addition, an experiment is now being conducted to record drivers who do not allow ambulances to pass, but no fines are issued.

Ivan Buranov