Cameras Cut Crashes :(

DRINK drivers are using a mobile phone application called Trapster to identify the location of police booze buses.
Trapster offers a free software download that allows users to map the location of police on their mobile phones, which can then be seen by other registered Trapster users.
The software can be used on most mobile devices that have global positioning system capability, including Apple’s iPhone, BlackBerrys and Nokia mobile phones.
Information about the location of police speed traps and booze buses is also published on Trapster’s website, and is rebroadcast on the social networking website Twitter, via the user Melbspeedcams.
Subscribers to the Twitter feed of Melbspeedcams are able to obtain a stream of messages, or ”tweets”, identifying the location of mobile speed cameras.

The operator of Melbspeedcams stopped tweeting the locations of booze buses via Twitter on January 2, because of a number of complaints, but the information was available throughout the pre-Christmas police blitz on drink driving.
But the information is still available free of charge via US-owned Trapster. Its system relies on the diligence and accuracy of its users to correctly identify the location of booze buses, which are listed in Trapster’s software as police ”checkpoints” and ”live police traps”.
It is being used by motorists in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, where users provide fast and up-to-date information. As more users verify the location of police, the higher the rating of the reported trap.

Over the past two weeks The Age has visited several police ”checkpoints” listed by Trapster, to discover that users have identified the precise location of a booze bus as a police ”checkpoint”.
On Sunday night, the location of a police booze bus working in Docklands was correctly identified.
Filters built into Trapster’s software allow users to include or omit specific information, such as the locations of red-light cameras and fixed speed cameras.

A Victoria Police spokesman said last night the police were aware of the application. ”While it is disappointing that motorists would consider drink driving and using this technology to attempt to avoid detection, there is nothing currently illegal with the application,” he said.
”While it may give the location of booze buses, be assured that we will have a number of roaming patrols that will catch you.”

(also pinched and rehashed in theHun – http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/booze-bus-speed-trap-application-warns-drivers-about-upcoming-police/story-e6frf7l6-1225830752738 )