Safe Speed Forums

Safe Speed issued the following PR at 02:53 this morning:

PR185: Road Safety Bill fails, good riddance says Safe Speed

News: For immediate release

The widely discussed Road Safety Bill has run out of time and failed
according to the epolitix parliamentary web site.

The main features of the failed bill included:

* Enabled roadside evidential breath testing
* Introduced graduated fixed penalties for speed limit offences
* Banned speed enforcement detection devices
* Added three licence points to mobile phone offences

Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign
(www.safespeed.org.uk) said: "Like many things in road safety, the
'obvious' view often proves to be wrong, and much of this bill was
actually likely to make road safety worse. Good riddance!"

"The road safety bill represented the culmination and extension of a
decade's flawed and oversimplified thinking at the highest levels in
UK road safety. National road safety policy over the last decade has
been a disaster propped up only with millions of pounds spent on spin
and twisted statistics. Any decent policy would have driven road
deaths down, but instead we've had the £700 million pound speed camera
programme which has actually made the roads more dangerous. Deaths are
UP."

"Let's make sure we see the end of the team and their oversimplified
thinking with the forthcoming general election. We have to get back to
the policies that gave us the safest roads in the world in the first
place. So far only the Conservatives are offering intelligent forward
thinking policies. I expect motorists will know how to vote."

<ends>

Epolitix on the Bill's failure:
http://www.epolitix.com/EN/Legislation/ ... 7adca4.htm


Example detailed analysis on graduated speeding penalties:
(Safe Speed's consultation response)
http://www.safespeed.org.uk/consultation.html
Or as a Word document:
http://www.safespeed.org.uk/consultation.doc
You may quote from our consultation response.

_________________
Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Halfords will be pleased



And from the T2000 barking mad ramblings


not any more it isn't....shame

_________________
Speed camera policy Kills

well in all likelihood Labour will win another term, is there anything to stop them simply resurrecting the bill?

Yeah. David Jamieson is retiring. As I understand it it was his baby.

_________________
Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

I think the Labour spin meisters deliberately slowed down its progress so that it was cut by the election.

How about a safespeed draft of the bill? If we could get some MP to pick up our version then the opportunity for change isn't lost and the stupid bits in it could be removed and replaced with more rational ideas that might actually improve road safety.

It's not often I read good news on this forum. A triumph for common sense.

Labour will have enough on their plate for the next couple of years trying (and no doubt failing) to make good on their election pledges, so we're safe for now I reckon.

After your 'good news' comment, I'm really sorry to report that Labour have since pledged to reintroduce the road safety bill if re-elected.

_________________
Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

If that pledge is anything like their others we will have a while to wait then.

with any luck their majority will be much smaller. Of course it doesn't help if some tory MPs vote in favour of the bill. As did one according to his web page. I think the term feckwit is appropriate. I read his view that cameras had 'done more good than bad'.

Hmmmm. He admited the had done some "bad" at least that is progress. From now on it's just a matter of tipping the scales in the direction of the truth...

Does sound like a political cop-out statement though.

_________________
Speed camera policy Kills

Unfortunately the speed cameras friend Gwyneth Dunwoody is standing again and has a 9k majority.

Alastair, Darling, is standing in a re-jigged scottish seat and at risk acording to today's Times.