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www.independent.ie, Friday, 7th December 2007
By Caroline Crawford
A popular satellite navigation system has defended its decision to flag speed cameras to Irish motorists, insisting that the move will not result in more speeding.
Irish drivers can now pinpoint every speed camera in the country through their in-car Garmin navigation system.
The Garmin GPS devises have teamed up with Irishspeed traps.com to provide the locations for the cameras throughout the country.
Motorists can now log onto the speed traps website and download the database of fixed safety cameras locations and mobile speed trap locations onto their in-car Garmin sat nav device. There are currently 350 cameras pinpointed and the database is updated on a weekly basis.
Irishspeed traps.com compile the database from locations submitted by website users. Only locations that have been submitted twice or more and manually verified by Irishspeed traps .com are included and available for download by motorists.
When approaching a safety camera the Garmin Sat Nav will display the designated speed limit and an audio and onscreen prompt will remind the driver to reduce their speed.
Philip Nathan, a spokesperson for JDM Products, the distributors of Garmin in Ireland, insisted the move was to encourage reduction in speed.
“Because these safety cameras are located in zones where car accidents have occurred previously, the majority of motorists are already aware of them. We can never stop people speeding but we can certainly make them aware of the speed limit in that particular zone in advance with the prompt from the in-car sat nav,” he said.
“We believe anything that encourages drivers to keep within the speed limit at all times is to be welcomed.
“This exclusive partnership with Garmin and Irishspeed traps.com will, we hope, highlight the danger speed zones for motorists and force them to slow down. With the impending busy Christmas season motorists need to be extra vigilant on the roads and watch their speed,” he continued.
Ciaran Kennedy of Irishspeed traps.com also defended the service provided by the site, adding: “We believe that public knowledge of these safety camera locations will play a vital role in improving road safety and encourage drivers to slow down.”
The full database is compatible with the Garmin Nuvi 250, 250w, 310, 610, 710 and Zumo 550 devices. A one year subscription costs €35 which includes unlimited free download updates during that time.
This system is commonplace in other European countries such as Austria where a number of cars have such alert systems for speed cameras standard.
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