St Gallen police use drones to measure vehicle speeds

Police in the Swiss canton of St Gallen are using drones to monitor traffic and plan to continue the practice, ORF reports. The drones film vehicles along a stretch of road, allowing officers to calculate their average speed and document dangerous driving.

For each speed check, officers mark two points on the road and measure the distance between them. They use the drone footage to determine how long a vehicle takes to travel between the points, then calculate its average speed from the distance and time.

Five of the six checks carried out so far took place on the Stossstrasse, a road leading from Altstätten in the St Gallen Rhine Valley to Gais in Appenzellerland. The sixth was near Mühlrüti, farther inland.

Officers recorded two speeding offences, both on the Stossstrasse, and reported five people for unauthorised technical modifications to their vehicles. The drones have not yet uncovered a particularly serious speeding offence.

Police say they deploy the drones in places where they have indications of excessive speed or dangerous driving. Checks are limited to specific locations and times. Officers hope the drones, which are difficult to spot from a vehicle, will also deter offences.

Austria has no current plans to introduce drones for speed enforcement.