Mon, Nov 27th 2023
Between September 12 and October 19 of this year, 9,604 vehicles were wrongly flashed by new radar systems in the city of Bern. The problem was caused by an error in the software programming.
Four measuring systems in the city of Bern were affected, as the Bern cantonal police announced on Monday. The people affected will be informed by letter in the coming days and the approximately 6,000 fines already paid will be refunded.
The incorrectly programmed devices are a new generation of measuring systems with loop technology. In recent years, a measuring device supplier has developed these for Switzerland together with a Dutch device manufacturer.
The devices have been tested and approved by the Swiss Federal Institute of Metrology (Metas). Metas has calibrated the systems and approved operation for seven locations with two different loop configurations in the city of Bern. According to the press release, these are four systems with a loop distance of 2.2 meters and three systems with a loop distance of 2.5 meters.
In the initial phase, the Bern cantonal police detected an above-average number of speeding violations on the devices with a loop configuration of 2.2 meters. In addition, more feedback was received from those affected, it added.
Following clarifications with the equipment supplier, the police then requested a follow-up check from Metas. This revealed that the speed on the four radar devices with a loop distance of 2.2 meters was too high. The police wrote that “extensive” clarifications are now being carried out by the agencies involved.
The four systems were stopped on October 19, the report continued. Only these systems were in use throughout Switzerland. The three devices with a loop distance of 2.5 meters are in use in the city of Bern and are working perfectly, as a spokeswoman for the Bern cantonal police told the Keystone-SDA news agency on request.
©Keystone/SDA
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