UK Case Study – ‘Heads Up’ Begins Operations in the Humberside Region
October 6, 2023
“This AI technology provides 24-hour operations and can detect far more offenders than a police officers or staff member can.”
Ian Robertson, Partnership Manager, Safer Roads Humber
Safer Roads Humber is the partnership responsible for road safety across the Humberside region, covering Hull, the East Riding, North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire.
In 2021, 41 people were killed on roads in the Humberside region. Using a hand-held mobile phone whilst driving a vehicle is proven to be a significant safety risk, significantly increasing the risk of a collision and associated casualties. In addition, drivers who don’t wear their seatbelts are more likely to be killed or seriously injured in the event of a collision. If these behaviours can be reduced, this should have an impact on the regional casualty figures.
In a 5-day operation in March 2023, ‘Heads Up’ captured 54 drivers using a mobile phone and 225 not wearing their seatbelt.
A van equipped with the ‘Heads Up’ technology and operated by AECOM was used at a number of sites across the region, allowing the partnership to monitor behaviour and capture examples of these dangerous driving behaviours.
“As this technology gets better and can be more widely used, I expect it will have a significant impact on road safety and casualty reduction.”
Ian Robertson
Innovation
The ‘Heads-Up’ system is a world-first, patented innovation, capable of detecting and logging violation records for distracted driving and seatbelt non-compliance. This is achieved using high-resolution cameras, infra-red illumination, image processors and Artificial Intelligence (AI) software. Pictures are captured 24/7 in almost any weather conditions, through the windscreen, providing a clear evidential record.
AI software acts as a powerful pre-filter, automatically flagging up likely violations for human review, allowing thousands of images to be evaluated in real-time, without the risk of boredom or inconsistency that would come from a human viewer.
The specific geometry and components used by the system are optimised to produce evidential records, suitable for prosecution purposes. Vehicles are detected travelling at up to 185 mph and capture images with minimal motion blur or distortion via high-performance sensor technology.
