THE number of traffic offences increased threefold during the period the Automated Enforcement System (AES) was offline, said Anthony Loke.

The Transport Minister said that during the exemption period on August 17-31, the Automated Awareness Safety System (AwAS) caught 15,000 vehicles speeding, three times the average of 5,000.

“There were those who tried to challenge the laws on the road,” he told reporters at the AES Command Centre in Kelana Jaya, today.

Loke said beginning this month, no exemptions or discounts would be given for summonses issued for offences caught by Awas.

He said offenders will be given a compound period of 60 days with a compound rate of RM300.

Demerit points would also be handed out when the compound is paid.

Awas is an integration of AES cameras and the Demerit Points System (Kejara).

“The government is taking a zero tolerance policy against reckless drivers. The point here is for the government to have tighter enforcement to stop reckless driving as well as to educate the drivers,” said Loke.

“We want to educate, not punish the drivers.”

AES will monitor the roads for two offences – running a red light and exceeding the speed limit.

Failure to observe the traffic light carries a penalty of four demerit points for private vehicles and six demerit points for buses and goods delivery vehicles.

The offence of exceeding the speed limit by 1km/h to 25km/h carries two demerit points for private vehicles and four demerit points for goods delivery vehicles and buses. The penalty for exceeding the speed limit by 25km/h to 40km/h is three demerit points for private vehicles and five demerit points for goods delivery vehicles and buses, while breaking the speed limit by more than 40km/h carry four points for private vehicles and six points for goods delivery vehicles and buses.

Loke said the demerit system was approved by the previous government in parliament.

“This is a system that had been approved previously but we are reviewing ways to improve it.

“We do not want to give the perception that we only want to punish drivers,” he said.

Loke said 1,268 summonses were issued in just two days on September 1-2. –  September 3, 2018.