Starting tomorrow, the cameras of the "Safe City" system will record you.
The Ministry of the Interior is launching the "Safe City, Safe State" system, which will automatically record traffic violations and punish violators. A trial period is planned until the New Year.
Drivers will only receive warnings, without any fines. The system will be fully implemented from January.
"The perpetrators of violations that will be documented through the Safe City system will be sanctioned in accordance with the provision regulating the maximum permitted speed of vehicles, i.e. there will be no tolerance regardless of whether the violation is documented in a populated area or outside a populated area," said Goce Andreevski - spokesman for the Ministry of Interior.
Every owner of a vehicle whose violation will be documented will receive a notification via SMS and email with a link where they can download the report and payment order.
From the moment of receipt, there is a deadline of eight days for the payment of half of the fine.
After expiry, the amount must be paid in full within the next eight days, before the procedure for forced collection begins. Fines can also be paid electronically, and the system will immediately notify the Ministry of Interior that the fine has been paid.
The Ministry of Interior explains that the sanction will be in accordance with the Law on Road Traffic Safety, which, with recent amendments, allows for the documentation of violations with cameras, without tolerance and wherever they are recorded - in the city or on the highway.
"In the initial period, traffic violations such as: driving at a speed exceeding the permitted speed, running a red light, expired traffic permits and illegally parked vehicles will be recorded, and in the next phase of the project, it is planned to expand the type of traffic violations that the electronic system will record," Andreevski said.
In recent years, citizens have witnessed a series of fatal pedestrian collisions, most often at crosswalks, by drivers driving several times faster than the speed limit.
An additional problem is parking in illegal places and blocking sidewalks and bicycle paths.
Three months ago, Minister Toshkovski announced that initially, Skopje, Tetovo and Kumanovo will be covered with cameras, as well as highways and motorways along corridors "8" and "10". It is expected that the entire territory of the country will be covered by the middle of next year.
The technology will show no mercy to violators, and the goal is a more orderly and safer traffic. Whether the cameras will make drivers come to their senses will be seen in the first weeks of the system, which will start recording and warning from tomorrow, and starting in the new year, it will also be punished.
