Safe Speed Forums

http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/sc ... d=68132006

£400,000 ad campaign to help drivers focus on speed cameras

MURDO MACLEOD
POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT

AN advertising campaign costing £400,000 will attempt to persuade Scottish drivers they should love speed cameras.

Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson, along with police and road safety experts, will launch the campaign tomorrow as part of an attempt to stop Scots speeding and reduce accidents.

The scheme aims to tackle the controversial image of speed cameras, which have been derided by critics as little more than money-making devices with little real impact on road safety.

The move comes just days after Britain's most lucrative speed camera was unveiled. It emerged last week that a mobile speed camera on the A11 outside Norwich, caught almost 400 drivers speeding in four hours of operation, raising £22,860 in fines, or almost £6,000 an hour.

Scotland's drivers will be regaled by billboard, TV, and petrol pump advertising in an effort to change attitudes to the cameras and speeding. The campaign is directly funded by the fines from the 6,000 speed cameras in the UK. But the advertising blitz was greeted with scepticism by anti-camera campaigners.

Paul Smith, of the Safe Speed campaign, said: "Hearing of this campaign makes me despair. Speed cameras do not work as a safety measure. They distract from other aspects of road safety, such as driving with awareness and engineering innovations. And in some areas they are effectively being used as a substitute for traffic police."

He added: "Cameras make people think that if they are not speeding then they cannot be doing anything wrong. Police tell me that almost the first thing people say after an accident is that they were not speeding."

A Scottish Executive spokeswoman said: "Provisional figures for 2004, show there were more than 18,000 casualties on Scotland's roads. We want to help tackle that by making drivers more aware of the dangers of speeding and ensure we make Scotland's roads safer for all road users - motorists, cyclists and pedestrians."

Last month, ministers south of the Border announced a break on the spread of speed cameras. Transport Secretary Alistair Darling said that from 2007/08 money from speeding fines will no longer go simply on more speed cameras and instead will be used to fund other road safety measures and better warning signs.

Government-commissioned research, published last month, shows that where cameras had been fitted there had been a 42% reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured and a 70% fall in vehicles exceeding the speed limit.

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

Safe Speed issued the following PR at 06:18 this morning:

PR278: Scottish Speed Camera Ad Blitz

news: for immediate release

Reports today announce a massive speed camera advertising campaign in
Scotland. Apparently we will shortly be subjected to a £400,000 bombardment of
dodgy claims and false road safety messages, on billboards, TV and petrol
pumps.

Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign
(www.safespeed.org.uk) said: "Speed cameras damage road safety. They
concentrate everyone on the wrong safety factor. They have effectively
replaced worthwhile road safety policies and real opportunities to save lives
have been missed."

"The speed camera programme is supported only by dodgy statistics, misleading
claims and false assumptions. I urge everyone to treat any claims made with
healthy skepticism. Whatever claims they make, you can bet that they will be
seriously misleading.

Drivers know, as if by instinct, that speed cameras are the wrong road safety
policy. The 350,000 word Safe Speed web site shows in great detail why drivers
are right and the government is wrong."

"We need sophisticated road safety messages about skills, attitudes and
responsibilities. Strict speed limit compliance is a road safety red herring
that distracts everyone from the genuine fundamentals of safe driving. You
don't even need a speedometer to drive safely, so how important can it really
be?"

"Department for Transport appears to be in full reverse over the discredited
speed camera programme after their recently published '4th year report'
reveals that camera effectiveness claims have been exaggerated by a factor of
four. However you have to read 'appendix H' to find the information. It's
disgraceful."

<ends>

Notes for editors
=================

Announcements in Scotland on Sunday today:
http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/sc ... d=68132006

Safe Speed will publish an analysis of the claims made in the new
advertisements as soon as possible. (We haven't seen the ads yet.)

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