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http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/ci ... 8a8d7e.lpf

MP in speed camera row
06 October 2006

MOTORISTS and an MP have criticised a new speed camera on the A14.

The camera, on the westbound carriageway just before the slip road at the Quy junction, was installed earlier this year in a scheme costing more than £100,000.

One motorist, who did not want to be named, said: "I've driven on that road for many years and I've never seen an accident at that spot. This is just another money-making venture by the police."

South East Cambridgeshire MP Jim Paice said: "The principal cause of crashes is bad driving and cameras can't identify that.

"I think trying to automate the system (by adding more cameras) is the wrong way round. What we need are more police officers or other forms of road safety officers. We all see examples of horrendously bad driving when we're out on the roads and the cameras just don't pick it up."

Mr Paice has previously criticised the placement of another A14 camera, on the westbound carriageway near Newmarket.

This camera, which still needs to be replaced after it was wrecked in an arson attack nearly three months ago, had been sited just to make money, Mr Paice said.

Acting Insp Andy Chatfield, project manager for the Cambridgeshire Safety Camera Partnership, said: "We only put cameras in to reduce casualties."

He said across the county the number of people killed and seriously injured had been reduced by 45.3 per cent during the past four years at camera sites.

"The figures speak for themselves," he said.

"Speed does kill. It determines the severity of the accident. If you make a mistake at speed you haven't got time to correct it."

Cambridgeshire County Council's road safety website shows one fatal and two slight injury accidents in the area of the A14 near the new camera at Quy between 2003 and 2005.

About a dozen minor injury accidents and one serious injury collision are recorded on the roundabout and slip roads at the junction which are shown as accident sites.

At least the MP is seeing sense, just shows how focused these SCP's are about making money.

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Useless laws weaken necessary laws.

I must admit after driving up the A14 over the weekend, it is a mess. Barrages of never ending signs, dangerous short slip roads, poor surfacing and Truvelo cameras every couple of miles

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

You should try the A14 Junction at Keyston

http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2& ... ne=4259409

No overbridge (except for cattle down the road), no slip roads, no breakdown lane, at all, you just have to drive straight across the dual carriageway of what is essentially a full two lane motorway, while trying to turn and accelerate at the same time. In addition visibility is limited by nearby bend and brow of hill.

When leaving the road, there is no deceleration lane, which is particularly difficult when there is a continuous train of HGVs, which is quite often, so it can be almost impossible to slow down to take the exit without being run down by an HGV.

It gets even more interesting when it is foggy.