The National Road Safety Authority, a division of the Transportation Ministry,
has approved a new regulation that establishes the reliability of the laser
radar guns that monitor vehicle speeds on the country’s
roadways.
Initiated by the authority, the new regulation will serve to
discredit the appeals of speeders who question the reliability of the
instrument’s measurement in court, the office said. When a vehicle is moving at
100 kilometers per hour, the accuracy of the instrument is within 3 kph, and at
above 100 kph, the device margin of error is likewise 3 percent, according to
the Road Safety Authority.
The authority will continue to vigorously
monitor the radar guns, both in the laboratory and in the field, the office
said.
The device operates by sending a laser beam to a passing vehicle,
after which the speed is calculated by measuring the difference between the
amount of time it takes for the laser to hit the target and the amount of time
it takes to return, the authority explained.
While the monitoring
services provided by these instruments are crucial, there has been no Israeli
standard regulating them in their 20 years of operation, the authority
explained. This situation led to a multitude of cases with legal ambiguities, in
which complainants were able to hamper the work of traffic courts with appeals
regarding device reliability.
“The new standard will facilitate the work
of the court and will provide an unambiguous criterion for determining the
reliability of speed reports,” a statement from the National Road Safety
Authority said.
“In addition, the device will help prevent cases in which
defendants of speed offenses receive acquittal due to technical arguments.”
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