Under the complex in the rye – Newspaper Kommersant No. 193 (7394) dated 10/18/2022

Kommersant studied the statistics of the traffic police and found 13 regions where accidents have increased since the beginning of the year in the control zones of stationary cameras. In Moscow and Tatarstan, the accident rate under the cameras did not increase, but the number of deaths increased. Regional authorities and camera operators explain this result by the “features” of accounting for accidents and the abolition of fines for average speed. However, independent experts believe that most of these photo and video recording systems have long been aimed at “monetization”, and not at all at ensuring security.

From the data published by the traffic police for the nine months of 2022, it follows that in 13 regions the accident rate has increased in the control zones of stationary cameras. Among them are the Moscow Region (+19% year-on-year), Chelyabinsk Region (+45%), Irkutsk Region (+71.4%), Ryazan Region (+2.3%), Kamchatka Region (+41.7%). More than a threefold increase in traffic accidents is observed in Crimea. In a number of subjects, the accident rate has decreased, but at the same time the number of deaths under cameras has increased – among them are Moscow (+33%) and Tatarstan (+66%).

Recall that since their appearance in 2008, traffic cameras have been positioned by the authorities precisely as a means of reducing accidents. Now there are more than 20 thousand of them in the country, including 17.2 thousand stationary ones. A few years ago, an active discussion began about the real effect of photo-video recording of violations. For example, the government of the Russian Federation has criticized the concession system, when private companies, by investing in cameras, receive income from fines. The fact that the photo-video fixation system has become a business model is regularly dissatisfied with the Prosecutor General’s Office. And the Research Center for Road Safety of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in a recent review pointed out that in some cases, fixation systems themselves provoke accidents: drivers, suddenly discovering a camera, abruptly change direction. Last week, Mikhail Chernikov, head of the traffic police of Russia, joined in the criticism. “Initially, there was an idea to deploy photo and video recording, and then, when people get used to it, they will violate less, gradually remove the cameras,” he said. “But we have deployed and continue to deploy further. It is not right. Cameras should be only where there is danger.”

Grigory Shukhman, an expert on photo and video recording systems, is not surprised by the statistics: “It is important not only to fine, but also to equip roads in such a way as to minimize the consequences of mistakes and deliberate violations.” The complexes make it possible to reduce the accident rate by 30% immediately after installation, but then the effect of the camera operation is smoothed out, adds Petr Shkumatov, Blue Buckets traffic coordinator. He believes that other measures are needed to further reduce the number of accidents.

The published data speaks of “the operational and efficient work of the traffic police and the transport authorities of the region,” the operator of cameras near Moscow, the MVS Group company, told Kommersant. “Every week in the region, a special commission investigates accidents with the dead. There, measures are being developed to prevent repeated accidents, decisions are being made to relocate the cameras, the company told Kommersant. The complexes fall on those sections of roads where there is already a high level of accidents. The effect of the overweight does not come immediately, but after a few months.

The OKO Association (which unites camera manufacturers and operators of photo and video recording systems) also explains the traffic police statistics with “statistical features”: “To get a clearer picture of the impact of photo and video recording, the indicators should be compared in the format “before and after” the installation of the complex. “We install cameras as soon as we see the centers of accidents,” they explain in the Ministry of Transport near Moscow. “For example, having discovered the outbreak in August, in September we installed the complex there. But the traffic police statistics record all accidents since the beginning of the year, including even before the installation of the camera.”

The regional ministry recalled that in 2021 the Ministry of Internal Affairs canceled fines for the average speed between two or more cameras (“Kommersant” talked about this). According to officials, this worsened the statistics. “Previously, motorists adhered to the speed limit in the area of ​​fixing the average speed, and there were no accidents,” the department explained. “Now, sudden changes in speed, when the driver is “braked” only in front of the camera, lead to an accident.” An increase in the accident rate due to the abolition of fixing the average speed is also seen in Tatarstan: the head of the region, Rustam Minnikhanov, asked to return them last Friday.

In the capital’s Center for Traffic Management (TSODD), commenting on the traffic police data, they drew attention to the fact that over the past 9 months the total number of deaths in road accidents in Moscow has decreased. “All this time we have been systematically installing new cameras,” the center said. “We increased the number of complexes from 3.6 thousand to 3.8 thousand. Cameras were installed not only in the centers of accidents, but also in potentially dangerous places. Thanks to this, we managed to avoid the emergence of new foci.” Commenting on the increase in the number of deaths in the places of operation of cameras, the TsODD noted that “for an objective assessment, it is necessary to study the circumstances of each accident and the very methodology for calculating the indicator.” “For example, were the cameras recording precisely those violations that led to fatal accidents,” the center explained. “If, for example, the accident occurred due to the fault of a drunk driver, then the camera is powerless here.”

The reaction of other regions to the traffic police data is unknown. Sources of “Kommersant” in the traffic police of Crimea and Sevastopol suggest that the increase in accidents may be associated with both improper organization of traffic and incorrect installation of the cameras themselves, which can provoke accidents. It is curious that against the backdrop of disputes about the effectiveness of photo and video recording, according to Kommersant, a decision was made to reduce the number of cameras on toll roads in the Moscow region (M-11, M-4 highways). Only cameras in the centers of accidents will remain there, a source familiar with the situation told Kommersant.

Ivan Buranov; Alexander Dremlyugin, Simferopol