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PostPosted: Sun Apr 04, 2004 14:00 
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Hi all,

We've been reported on Teletext, Ceefax, Freeview news, BBCi, The BBC News Website and Sky news web site today. It all stems from our PR:

http://www.safespeed.org.uk/pr110.html

Here's the Sky Piece:

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,3 ... 13,00.html

SPEEDING LOW DOWN LIST

Speeding is only the seventh most-frequent cause of road accidents in the UK, Department of Transport statistics have shown.

Inattention followed by failure to judge another driver's path or speed topped the list released by the Safe Speed campaign group.

Based on data from police forces, the figures also showed that more accidents were caused by motorists looking but not seeing, drivers being careless and drivers failing to look than by excessive speed.

For accident cause purposes, "excessive speed" includes both speed in excess of the speed limit and inappropriate speed for the conditions.

The Safe Speed group said that data from one police force - Avon and Somerset - revealed that 70% of "excessive speed" instances took place within the speed limit.

The Safe Speed campaign's founder Paul Smith said: "It should be obvious that the modern emphasis on speed-limit enforcement by camera risks increasing these common accident types.

"Precious and vital driver attention is diverted to the speedometer, speed limits and the risk of speed enforcement operations.

"The authorities must now acknowledge that `speed kills' road safety policy backed with speed cameras is not benefiting road safety.

"The policy is wasted on attempting to solve a problem that simply does not exist."

According to the latest data, the most-frequent contributory factors to accidents are:

1. Inattention

2. Failure to judge other person's path or speed

3. Looked but did not see

4. Behaviour - careless, thoughtless or reckless

5. Failed to look

6. Lack of judgment of own path

7. Excessive speed.
================================

And the BBC News Piece:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3597917.stm



Tackling road safety with speed cameras is a waste of time, according to a campaign group.

Safe Speed said government figures showed speeding was the seventh most frequent cause of UK road accidents.

Inattention and poor judgement of other drivers' speeds were more likely to lead to accidents, figures suggested.

Safe Speed said the 'speed kills' policy was not helping road safety and was "a policy wasted".

The Department of Transport figures showed inattentive and careless drivers and drivers failing to look were more likely factors in road accidents than excessive speeding.

---------
Boxout:

ROAD ACCIDENT CAUSES
Inattention
Failure to judge other's path or speed
Looking but not seeing
Careless and reckless behaviour
Failure to look
Lack of judgement of own path
Excessive speed
Source: Department of Transport
--------

Campaign founder Paul Smith said: "The modern emphasis on speed-limit enforcement by cameras risks increasing these common accident types.

"The authorities must now acknowledge that 'speed kills' road safety policy backed with speed cameras is not benefiting road safety.

"The policy is wasted on attempting to solve a problem that simply does not exist," he added.

In the government report, speeding as a cause included excessive speeds as well as driving at inappropriate speeds according to conditions.

The Safe Speed group said data from Avon and Somerset police showed 70% of "excessive speed" cases took place within the speed limit.

In Norfolk, an investigation is underway to review a partnership team charged with monitoring speed cameras following motorists' accusations that cameras are sited to raise revenue, not save lives.

But Partnership Board Chairman Supt Mark Veljovic said: "Over the last three years the figures show that where speed cameras have been sited there has been a 60% reduction in casualties in the county."
====================

Like I said, it's looking like a very good day. :)

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


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PostPosted: Sun Apr 04, 2004 17:28 
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Congratulations Paul! It really does look good indeed!

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www.beterveilig.nl


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PostPosted: Mon Apr 05, 2004 16:32 
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It was also mentioned on Sky News Active's text news section.


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PostPosted: Thu Apr 08, 2004 23:13 
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And in Local Papers in Ireland:

Belfast:

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/ ... ory=509638

Speed not worst killer

08 April 2004

THE Safe Speed campaign says that official figures recently published confirm exceeding the speed limit is not a large road accident causation factor.

The data from 13 police forces for 2001 reveals the following most frequent accident contributory factors:

Inattention ... 25%

Failure to judge other person's path or speed ... 22%

Looked but did not see ... 19%

Behaviour: careless/thoughtless/reckless ... 18%

Failed to look ... 16%

Lack of judgment of own path ... 13%

Excessive speed ... 12%

Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed campaign, says: "When the main causes of accidents involve drivers failing to properly observe or react to road hazards, the modern emphasis on speed limit enforcement by camera risks diverting vital driver attention to the speedometer.

"Road safety is a complex matter involving all our road users in complex interactions. Mostly it works well.

"With some 30,000,000 drivers we only have about 300,000 road injuries each year.

"This implies that the average driver goes 100 years between injury accidents, 1,000 years between serious injury accidents and 10,000 years between fatal accidents.

"The authorities must now acknowledge that 'speed kills' road safety policy backed with speed cameras is not benefiting road safety.

" The whole ethos must be scrapped immediately and we must instead borrow from the best practice in health and safety.

"Our road safety results - the best in the world - are simply the result of our superior road safety culture.

"Health and safety experts will tell us that feeding the safety culture is the only way to improve our national road safety performance."
==================================

And Dublin:

http://212.2.162.45/news/story.asp?j=39 ... n=39421601

Speed 'not the main cause of crashes'
04/04/2004 - 10:11:14

Speeding is only the seventh most-frequent cause of road accidents, latest figures have revealed.

Inattention was the main cause, followed by failure to judge another driver?s path or speed, according to British Department for Transport statistics released by the Safe Speed campaign group.

Based on data from police forces, the figures also showed that more accidents were caused by motorists looking but not seeing, drivers being careless and drivers failing to look than by excessive speed.

For accident cause purposes, ?excessive speed? includes both speed in excess of the speed limit and inappropriate speed for the conditions.

The Safe Speed group said that data from one police force ? Avon and Somerset - revealed that 70% of ?excessive speed? instances took place within the speed limit.

Safe Speed campaign?s founder Paul Smith said: ?When the main causes of accidents involve drivers failing to properly observe or react to road hazards, it should be obvious that the modern emphasis on speed-limit enforcement by camera risks increasing these common accident types, as precious and vital driver attention is diverted to the speedometer, speed limits and the risk of speed enforcement operations.?

He went on: ?The authorities must now acknowledge that ?speed kills? road safety policy backed with speed cameras is not benefiting road safety.

?Speed cameras could only save lives and reduce accidents if we had a significant population of accidents where normal motorists exceeding the speed limit caused or contributed to road accidents.

?These new figures confirm that we have very few accidents of this type. The policy is wasted on attempting to solve a problem that simply does not exist.?

According to the latest data, the most-frequent contributory factors to accidents are:

1. Inattention

2. Failure to judge other person?s path or speed

3. Looked but did not see

4. Behaviour ? careless, thoughtless or reckless

5. Failed to look

6. Lack of judgment of own path

7. Excessive speed.
========================================

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


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PostPosted: Fri Apr 09, 2004 15:33 
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Lincolnshire Police's own statistics have Dog in Carriageway (153 collisions out of 2732) causing nearly as many collisions as Going Too Fast (196 collisions out of 2732).

Note it doesn't say exceeding speed limit. :roll:


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PostPosted: Fri Apr 09, 2004 15:58 
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Homer wrote:
Lincolnshire Police's[/url] own statistics have Dog in Carriageway (153 collisions out of 2732) causing nearly as many collisions as Going Too Fast (196 collisions out of 2732).

We need those DogCams NOW!

Regards,

Peter

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed


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