HONOLULU -- If you are among the thousands of people who sped by one of those new state traffic cameras last week and have been nervously checking your mail box, there is good news.

Most of you won't be getting a ticket.

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Because of operator error, only 158 drivers will receive tickets out of 927 who were caught speeding last Wednesday, the first day of the program.

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The hidden operators are trained to point their speed guns at every vehicle coming their way. The computer saves pictures of only those going over the speed limit.

"We understand that there were some operator errors on the first day of the citations being issued," Department of Transportation spokeswoman Marilyn Kali said. "The operators have been retrained and we really don't expect any more problems like this."

Affiliated Computer Services, the company that runs the system and receives nearly $30 per ticket issued, approved only the tickets that had the best photos and clearest data to reduce burden on the traffic courts. The state also rejected some of the citations.

"If the license plate isn't readable or the location is wrong, then the state makes sure those citations are not issued," Kali said.

As for the 158 drivers who will get tickets, they should come in the mail later this week. Offenders have the choice of paying the fine, appealing by mail or showing up in court to contest the ticket.

State officials expect the error rate to decline dramatically as the new system is further broken in.

Drivers Slowing Down

As word of the traffic cameras has spread, the numbers show that drivers have slowed down.

On the first day the program handed out real citations, nearly 70 percent of drivers were speeding.

But after week one, the numbers were much lower. Of 39,939 vehicles clocked, only 2,105 of them were speeding -- or 5.27 percent.