AI Cameras Identify Nearly 19,000 Potential Road Offences in West Midlands

Summary

An artificial intelligence camera trial in Birmingham and Wolverhampton identified almost 19,000 potential road offences over two weeks in March. Cameras outside fire stations in Ladywood and Fallings Park looked for drivers or passengers failing to use seatbelts, children travelling without age-appropriate restraints, and people using mobile phones while driving. The trial recorded 11,045 potential seatbelt offences and 1,163 potential mobile-phone offences at Ladywood, plus 6,030 and 757 respectively at Fallings Park. Images included a passenger holding a small child without a seatbelt and a driver holding a phone with both hands. The West Midlands Combined Authority funded the project with police and fire-service partners to estimate the scale of the problem, and no enforcement is planned from this trial. Police and road-safety officials are reviewing whether the technology could support future enforcement. The authority cited data linking mobile-phone use to 32 deaths on UK roads last year and unfastened seatbelts to 133 deaths; the article also says about 2,000 West Midlands drivers a year receive fines and penalty points for driving while using a phone.