Seven more AES cameras put up

Eyes on the road: AES cameras are erected at seven locations that have been identified as accident prone areas.

PETALING JAYA: Two of the locations for the seven new Automated Enforcement System (AES) cameras are in Pagoh, Johor, where a fatal crash involving an express bus took place last Christmas Eve.

A Road Transport Department (JPJ) spokesman said the new cameras were located at Kilometre 146.8 and Kilometre 151.4 of the North-South Expressway (NSE) in Pagoh.

Besides Pagoh, other locations are at the highway’s Kilometre 299.9 in Kampar, Perak, and Kilometre 96.3 in Kuala Muda, Kedah, the East Coast Expressway’s Kilometre 256.1 and Kilometre 288.6 in Tereng­ganu, and Kilometre 17 of the Gua Musang-Kuala Krai road in Kelantan.

The cameras, said the spokesman, were initially installed in the locations – identified as accident hot spots – for a traffic operation in conjunction with Chinese New Year between Jan 21 and Feb 5 this year.

Fourteen passengers were killed in a dead­­­­­­­ly bus crash in Pagoh on Dec 24 after the vehicle skidded into a 10m slope at about 3.45am.

The Dewan Rakyat had earlier passed the Road Transport (Amendment) Bill to allow for the Automated Awareness Safety System (Awas) to be implemented.

Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai was reported to have said that there was no issue of “double jeopardy” for road users with a single offence registered under both the traffic offence demerit system (Kejara) and the AES.

He said offenders would not be charged in court twice for the same offence.