Patented by Routesafe, the Road Crossing Monitor lollypop is designed to combat the increasing number of drivers who, in some areas, routinely drive through manned school crossing points without stopping, or shout abuse at crossing patrol staff.

In combination with a miniature camera, the Vista MiniD-100 is mounted in the road safety lollypop itself, with the system being used by a number of Local Authorities to capture footage of offenses, for use within driver education and prosecution cases.

"We were given a great deal of technical guidance throughout our development of the Road Crossing Monitor by Vista, particularly on how best to archive the MiniD-100's captured images," says Routesafe's Lee Fairbrother: "The combination of comprehensive technical back-up from Vista and the compact performance of the mini DVR was the perfect combination for this innovative, leading edge product."

Since the lollipop systems have been deployed in targeted areas, incidents of drive throughs and abuse have largely become a thing of the past, and driver behaviour is reported to have significantly improved at every site it is deployed.

"More than ten times smaller than the average CCTV DVR, the MiniD-100 is a robust device that can be used within a variety of covert, mobile or portable applications," says Mark Pritchard, Vista's divisional director: "Using a standard SD card to record both video and audio, the MiniD-100 DVR uses a combination of highly efficient MPEG compression and miniature components, to dramatically reduce power consumption and space requirements. This makes it ideal for inclusion in the lollypop project with its demanding performance criteria."