Speeding tickets waived over incorrect cameras

Police have waived more than 130 speeding tickets after new digital speed cameras incorrectly clocked motorists speeds.

The new mobile cameras, which cost $4 million and were introduced nationally in January, were wrongly clocking the speeds of larger vehicles and some tickets had been issued for twice the vehicles' true speeds, a police spokesman told the Dominion Post.

Police had waived at least 133 tickets after complaints, including 10 cases where the readings were proven inaccurate.

Police had stopped processing infringement notices for high sided trucks and buses, the newspaper reported.

Acting national manager of road policing Inspector Peter McKay said tickets for normal-sized cars were not being waived, but said staff were scrutinising all photos and readings.

"If there appears to be any anomalies, we will not process any infringements," he said.

"To ensure no one is disadvantaged, no photos of large flat-sided vehicles typically buses and trucks are being processed at the moment."

Mr McKay said the radar beams from the cameras have been deflected from the sides of large vehicles to nearby metal objects and back doubling the recorded speed.

"It appears initially the cameras were set incorrectly and this has resulted in some incorrect (high) readings," he said.

"We are talking about introducing a fairly sophisticated piece of equipment ... it is reasonable to expect some teething issues."

- NZPA