Safe Speed Forums

By David Millward, Transport Editor
6:06PM BST 04 Aug 2011
Road casualties continue to fall as speed cameras stripped out

The number of people killed and seriously injured on the roads continued to fall despite speed cameras being stripped out across the country, according to the latest figures released by the Government.

According to the latest statistics released by the Department for Transport fatalities dropped by 10 per cent, falling to 1,870 for the 12 months ending in March.

Over the same period the number of people killed and seriously injured fell to 24,770, a decline of five per cent.
This coincided with an even more dramatic 35 per cent reduction in people killed in drink-drive accidents, with 250 deaths last year compared with 380 in 2009.
The apparent improvement in road safety will hearten ministers, who had been under attack for withdrawing funding from speed cameras and also slashing the amount spent on anti-drink drive campaigns.
Spending cuts over the past year have seen cameras switched off across the country as safety police and councils have seen their budgets squeezed.
Partnerships in Wiltshire, Derbyshire, Buckinghamshire, Somerset and Norfolk are among those who have turned off all or some of their cameras.

The continuing decline was hailed by Claire Armstrong of Safe Speed, a pressure group which has long argued that cameras played little role in the long-term reduction of road casualties.
“Speed Cameras are a flawed Road Safety policy and this proves it, since so many are unused and the vast majority are switched off,” she said.
“The motorist is our best road safety asset, and improving good judgement and managing risk, is key to prevent damage to property and people.”

But Ellen Booth of the pro-camera group, Brake, disagreed. "Reductions in road casualties are achieved through many types of road safety initiatives so it would be misleading to try to assess the impact of widespread speed camera withdrawals from casualty figures alone,” she said.
“All the existing academic evidence on the effectiveness of speed camera programmes suggests that it is very likely that more people will have been killed or injured on our roads, and more families torn apart, as a direct result of speed cameras being turned off.”

But Andrew Howard, the AA’s head of road safety, sounded a note of caution.
“You have to take into account that not all the cameras were withdrawn at the same time. We will need another year to get a more accurate picture of what has been going on.”
The sharp reduction in drink drive deaths was welcomed by Norman Baker, the local transport minister.
“The provisional figures for 2010 suggest the number of drink-drive deaths is now 83% lower than 30 years ago. This is very welcome.
"However, we are determined to continue to take firm action against the small minority of drivers who still ignore the limit.”

But Ellen Booth of the pro-camera group, Brake, disagreed. "Reductions in road casualties are achieved through many types of road safety initiatives so it would be misleading to try to assess the impact of widespread speed camera withdrawals from casualty figures alone,” she said.

Brake are also now following the Safe Speed Twitter ! Good to have them on board, but I wish they came on the forum more often.

I often wake up in a cold sweat after dreaming I was stuck behind someone from Brake

I wouldn't worry about that because I honestly can't imagine any of them actually driving, bearing in mind the drivel they spout.

Can anyone supply a photograph of the unmarked (green) camera vehicle which operated in Derbyshire some while back.? They now operate a silver/grey one on the A623 at Wardlow Mires mainly on Sundays when less HGVs are about and one can travel at an acceptable speed and not the new lower limit of 50MPH.

All I can find are these one's on the speedcam site : http://www.speedcam.co.uk/van.htm

Edited to add : just found this one : http://www.abd.org.uk/local/derbyshire.htm

...Reductions in road casualties are achieved through many types of road safety initiatives so it would be misleading to try to assess the impact of widespread speed camera withdrawals from casualty figures alone

All the existing academic evidence on the effectiveness of speed camera programmes suggests that it is very likely that more people will have been killed or injured on our roads, and more families torn apart, as a direct result of speed cameras being turned off.