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What's more intimidating than a red-light camera?

A red-light camera with wheels.

"Speed vans" that capture an image of vehicles driving too fast will now be placed along I-40 and I-25 in another attempt to get drivers to lay off the accelerator as they blaze through the city.

Mayor Martin Chavez and Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz announced Thursday that the vans and increased radar patrols of the highways are aimed at slowing interstate traffic including semitrailers, two of which have rolled over on the Big-I recently and tied up traffic for hours.

But city brass warned that the vans and radar patrols also will nab other drivers if they are cruising far above the speed limit.

Drivers doing 78 and 103 mph were ticketed Thursday as part of speed-suppression activity on I-40 near Eubank Boulevard Northeast.

Chavez said he wants to increase enforcement to give the city a reputation of intolerance for speeders.

"They get on their radios," Chavez said about truckers.

The mayor said he isn't worried visitors will avoid the city because of the crackdown, which began April 1.

In the first month of action, Albuquerque police wrote 1,098 tickets to highway drivers. They also made six arrests on warrants, recovered one stolen vehicle, and towed eight vehicles and one semitrailer, according to the department.

The effort is aimed at slowing all traffic on the freeways and preventing crashes.

Chavez and the Police Department are looking at mobilizing city tow trucks to clear wrecks faster. Schultz said the city's 911 operators now will tell drivers involved in minor wrecks to drive their vehicles off at the nearest exit and into nearby parking lots or side streets, where officers will meet them.

Eventually, Schultz and Chavez hope insurance companies will agree that police won't need to fill out an on-scene accident report for drivers to process a claim.

Chavez said he will lobby the state Public Regulation Commission to allow a report filled out at a police substation to suffice for accident claims to insurance companies.

"We're one of the few major cities that still responds to minor accidents," Schultz said, noting Albuquerque sees 20,000 minor crashes a year.

In addition to I-40 and I-25, the new drive-and-wait policy also applies to crashes on other major thoroughfares, including Unser, Tramway and Coors boulevards, and Paseo del Norte.