Safe Speed Forums

I'm booked to talk on BBC GMR (Greater Manchester Radio) this morning at 9:20 to talk about the distraction effect of speed cameras following statements by a coroner.

Safe Speed issued the following pr yesterday at 12:11pm on the subject:

PR141: Weapons of Mass Distraction

NEWS: For Immediate Release

Local papers report the comments of a coroner and Police expert
confirming that speed cameras can be a "deadly distraction" and have
been implicated in a particular death.

Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign, comments:
"Road safety utterly depends on road users looking where they are
going and taking appropriate action when necessary and in good time.
But speed cameras force us to look elsewhere - at the speedo inside
the car and take our attention away from the road ahead. It should be
obvious to everyone that this is dangerous, but the Government has
done absolutely nothing to evaluate the degree of danger."

Safe Speed has a web based straw poll about drivers attention to the
speedometer in the area of a speed camera and the results are truly
frightening. For example, 70% of drivers report diverting 40% OR MORE
of their attention towards the speedo in a particular (imaginary but
typical) speed camera zone.

The straw poll is not "accurate science", but it is an indication of a
potentially very important road safety problem. What has the
Government done to understand the issues? Absolutely nothing.

<ends>

Notes for editors:

Report in Manchester Evening News:
http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/news/ ... meras.html


Safe Speed survey of speedo distraction effects:
http://www.safespeed.org.uk/speedo.html


Top Quality Safe Speed Cartoon:
...
... entitled "Weapons of Mass Distraction", showing "little old lady"
moving into the road while "distracted driver" stares at threatening
speed camera. This cartoon may now be reproduced freely so long as the
following credit is given:

"Cartoon courtesy of www.safespeed.org.uk"

We recommend the caption:

"Weapons of mass distraction"

<ends>

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

This was sad, but unsurprising.

[Edit] - The incident I mean.