Safe Speed Forums

Camera warning for motorists
01 August 2010

MOTORISTS have been warned new safety cameras set up along a busy stretch of road could become active any day after questions were raised about whether they were in use or not.

Queries had been raised about the cameras along the A149 between Potter Heigham and the junction with the A1151 at Cats Common near Wayford.

In March it was reported that seven camera stands, which measure average speed, had been placed along the road, which has a speed limit varying between 50mph and 60mph, as part of a wider project aimed at reducing accidents on rural roads.

But motorists had been questioning whether the cameras were active.

Gary Gilden, from The Avenue in Horning, said he had seen a safety camera van parked about 20m away from one of the new cameras which had raised his suspicions.
John Birchall, Norfolk County Council spokesman, said they were still “processing and calibrating” the cameras so mobile speed cameras were being used on the road.

He said: “It is not just a case of switching the speed cameras on. This is a whole system of cameras which operate together to detect and calculate the average speed of vehicles.”
He added: “The message is if you do not want to be the first to get a speeding ticket issued by the cameras, then do not speed.”

The cameras are part of the government's Rural Road Safety Demonstration Project, in which four councils, Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Devon and Northamptonshire have been asked to pilot rural road safety initiatives.

The project, which in Norfolk is funded with £1.5m from the Department for Transport, also requires local authorities to look at and report on key problems facing rural drivers.

Measures taken in Norfolk include the planting of trees on village approaches and replacing posts along the road with collapsible ones, so the impact is less if someone should hit them.

The message is if you do not want to be the first to get a speeding ticket issued by the cameras, then do not speed.

Yup, I can't quite get what's so hard about that.

Quite a bit if it's set below reasonable levels; do you get that?

What the cameras are set below the speed limit?

Speed, speed, speed.

Are you trying to be funny? Hear me roar as I split my sides

Apart from the usual response, I wonder if the accident history of this road justifies all these cameras?
Or will they just fail to raise revenue until the local council do the decent thing and pull the plug?

In reality of course no road 'justifies' any camera, as it will never address the root cause of an accident since 'speeding' is never a root cause in the first place.

Prior anticipation, observation will possibly prevent the accident, not that they are travelling at the 'legal speed limit' as that is highly likely to still be too fast.

Well then, presumably travelling above the speed limit is too fast again.

Well then, presumably travelling above the speed limit is too fast again.

If you always travel so that you can stop in the distance that you know to be clear then you will be 'safe'.
As long as you are recognising all potential hazards and taking all appropriate steps to make those situations safe too, you will be safe.
The speed limit is a legal limit it is never a safety limit.