Speed cameras catching more Melbourne motorists after dark Assistant Police Commissioner Robert Hill says drivers need to know they can be caught speeding at any time of the day or night. MORE than 210,000 motorists have been caught speeding in the dark since every mobile speed camera was fitted with infra-red technology. The flash on the old cameras alerted motorists to their presence so they were ineffective and very rarely used at night. Police got around that by the end of 2012 by fitting every mobile speed camera with infra-red technology, enabling them to take perfect snaps without telltale flashing. The hi-tech cameras have been out in the dark on Victorian roads for almost 40,000 hours since then. Figures provided to the Herald Sun by Victoria Police revealed mobile cameras used at night nabbed 115, 790 motorists in 2012-13 and 98, 714 in 2013-14. Those motorists paid more than $40 million in fines. Victoria Police's top traffic top, assistant commissioner Robert Hill, has defended the increased use of mobile speed cameras during the hours of darkness. He revealed to the Herald Sun they would be out in force throughout December, particularly during the traditionally deadly Christmas-New Year period. "Reducing road trauma is a 24-hours a day, 365 days a year challenge," Mr Hill said. Our message to those who continue to ignore the risks is that you can be caught anywhere, anytime, night or day. Being caught may well save you from being involved in crash in the future. The Victoria Police figures revealed by far the hour of darkness in which most speeding motorists were nabbed by mobile cameras was between 8pm and 9pm, with 35,590 fined during that hour in the past two years. The hour fewest leadfoots were caught was between 3am and 4am, with 1965 of them busted during that time since July 2012. Almost 15,000 speeding motorists have been snapped between midnight and 2am since July 2012 and 12,175 were fined for exceeding the speed limit between 4am and 6am during the same period. Police used mobile speed cameras at night for 20,147 hours in 2013-14 - 637 more hours than they were used the previous year. The decision to fit every mobile speed camera with infra-red technology followed a 2011 recommendation by the Auditor-General that police should dramatically increase the use of them at night. Police did a study of how many motorists were speeding when they drove past mobile speed cameras during the last six months of 2011. It revealed 2.6 per cent were speeding during the day and 3.4 per cent were speeding at night. Originally published as Cameras catch more speeding after dark