The Dirección General de Tráfico (DGT) is planning to start issuing fines from its so-called 'average speed' radar cameras from the beginning of next year.

A number of these cameras are already in use, although not yet issuing fines, but when the fining comes into operation in January the DGT will publish a full list of where they have been installed.

To begin with they will be placed in dangerous tunnels, like the Guadarrama ones on the AP-6 between Madrid and Segovia, and other traditional traffic accident black spots.

The cameras, which are undergoing a series of tests at the moment, will be installed to monitor stretches of road of between one and five kilometres in length and not only capture the number plate clearly, but also record the exact time the vehicle passed by.

The two cameras, one at each end of the stretch of road being monitored, calculate the average speed a vehicle has gone between one camera and the other and, if it is higher than the permitted speed, a photo of the offending driver is taken and send by fibre optic cable to the DGT' fine centre.

Drivers will not be able to fool the camera by changing lane as all the sensors are interconnected, and it works equally well both by day and by night thanks to laser lighting that is invisible to the human eye.

The cameras will be signposted in the same way as fixed radar cameras and will be protected by an anti-vandal security system and cannot be neutralised by illegal anti-radar devices.

The DGT then plans to extend the use of this technology to catching people who break the speed limit and run red lights.  A still photo will be taken of an offending driver, who will then be fined with jumping the lights, rather than breaking the speed limit and will face the loss of four points as well as a hefty fine.