http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4241337.stm
Mobile speed camera traps 'soar'
The number of mobile speed cameras in the UK has risen by more than a third in a year, figures have suggested.
The mobile cameras are being used increasingly instead of cameras on fixed sites, and are catching more drivers speeding.
The findings were released by Cyclops, a company which manufactures detectors warning drivers about camera locations.
It said in 2003-2004, 1.8 million fines were issued in England and Wales, seven times the 2000-2001 total.
Cyclops said it had a database of every fixed, temporary and mobile speed camera site in the UK. Criteria for mounting mobile speed cameras were less stringent than for their fixed counterparts.
Losing licence
Cyclops director Steve Wreford said: "At the current rate of growth, we could have as many mobile camera locations as fixed sites by the end of 2005.
"Under the draft Road Safety Bill, motorists caught excessively speeding will receive six points. In other words, that means the average driver could lose their licence and livelihood in just two offences," he said.
More than half of the sites are located on 30mph zones where two-thirds of fatal or serious injury accidents take place.
Department of Transport research has shown drivers travelling 5mph higher than the limit are twice as likely to cause a fatality if they hit someone.
Government rules for mobile speed camera sites rule at least two fatal or serious injury accidents must have taken place in the last 36 months where speed was a significant factor.
A Department for Transport spokesman said: "Speed cameras are only put up at locations where there is a safety record. We know that speed cameras save lives."
Nigel Humphries, spokesman for the Association of British Drivers, said the mobile cameras were merely a way of making money and called for them to be withdrawn.
"The whole thing is driven by revenue and they have to use safety as an excuse," he said.
"If they know there is a camera there they can check their speed. We support fixed cameras that are visible and well known but of course they do not raise much money."
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And in the Scotsman:
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=4097128
Rapid Increase Mobile Speed Cameras
By Emily Pennink, PA
The number of mobile speed cameras sites on Britain’s roads has soared by more than a third in a year, figures released today show.
The mobile units, which have less stringent rules on where they can be placed, are increasingly favoured over fixed gatso cameras, the data shows.
And cameras have resulted in a massive rise in the number of fines dished out to speeding drivers.
In the period 2003-2004, 1.8 million fixed penalty fines were issued in England and Wales, seven times more than in the period 2000-2001.
The firm Cyclops, which released the data, produces Global Positioning System (GPS) speed trap detectors warning drivers of cameras ahead and speed limits at accident blackspots.
It has a database of every fixed, temporary and mobile speed camera site in the UK.
Cyclops director Steve Wreford said: “Although there was a marked slowdown in the appearance of new fixed gatso, Truvelo and SPECS camera sites over the past 12 months, the opposite has been true of mobile patrols operated by Road Safety Partnerships.
“At the current rate of growth, we could have as many mobile camera locations as fixed sites by the end of 2005.”
He added: “Under the draft Road Safety Bill, motorists caught excessively speeding will receive six points. In other words, that means the average driver could lose their licence and livelihood in just two offences.”
The South East has the most mobile camera sites (17.6%) while Scotland has the least, just 8.7%.
More than half of the sites are on critical 30mph stretches where around two thirds of all fatal or serious injury accidents happen.
A motorist driving just 5mph over the 30mph limit is twice as likely to kill someone than those who drive within the limit, Department of Transport research has shown.
Under rules governing positioning of mobile cameras, proposed sites must have recorded at least two fatal or serious injury crashes per kilometre with a 36-month period where speed was a factor or enough personal injury collisions to warrant avoiding a more serious accident.
Criteria for fixed cameras dictate that each site must record at least four fatal or serious crashes over the same period.
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is she the youngest safe speed follower? 
Makes a blinking good excuse for typos anyway! 
these muppets surveyed reckon the only way they will stop speeding is if harsher penalties were introduced like a "12 month ban for the first offence!"
