Safe Speed Forums

Cambridgeshire road deaths up almost 50%

The number of people killed in road collisions in Cambridgeshire is up by almost 50% on last year.
Statistics show that since the start of the year 51 people have been killed in collisions, compared to 35 people for the same period in 2006.

Pc Tony Barrios, casualty reduction officer, said: "This huge increase in fatalities is extremely alarming."

Police are now targeting speeding drivers which they say contribute to increased road deaths.

'Lives at risk'

"Road users increase each year bringing a slight increase in serious and fatal collisions but an increase of almost 50% is very concerning," Pc Barrios said.

"Sadly the vast majority of collisions are caused by driver error so if we are going to reduce casualties on the roads motorists must stick to road safety rules.

"There are still some motorists driving in a dangerous manner through inappropriate use of speed, using mobile phones and not wearing seat belts.

"These drivers are risking their own lives and the lives of others."


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/camb ... 958035.stm

SPECS on A14 etc not working then. Of course it down to other factors per their own admission which you paste here

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Where's the logic in that sentence? How the hell does sticking to road safety rules prevent driver error?

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It's tricky doing nothing - you never know when you're finished

Exactly.

That sort of utter, utter rubbish is why we're here and why we're so badly needed.

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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

Looks like Hertfordshire is even worse, deaths up 77% from 22 last year to 39 this year.

Of course, the numbers involved are small so it's probably not statistically significant, but you can bet if it was a fall of 50/77% they'd be congratulating the effectiveness of speed cameras.

Any fall in casualty rates is always down to their cameras or their policies – but never the drivers.
Any rise in casualty rates is always down to ‘speeding drivers’ – but never the cameras or their policies.


I can’t find the stats the article refers to.

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Views expressed are personal opinions and are not necessarily shared by the Safe Speed campaign

How is not wearing a seat belt 'dangerous driving'?

Granted, were they to be in a collision their own chances of injury are much higher, but is there any statistical evidence that people who don't wear seatbelts are involved in propotionately more crashes than those who do?!

On the TV slot about this, the police spokesman said that 90% of the crashes were caused by driver error, mainly through lack of attention. Breaking the speed limit was not stated as the main issue.
Of course the A14 SPECS won't work since only 1% of accident causation in the last 4 years on that stretch was attributed by the police to vehicles breaking the 70 mph speed limit. A good way to spend £2.5 million of OUR money, then!

Enforcing seat belt wearing is a safety initiative since in any accident wearing a belt will reduce the liklihood of serious injury or death. It's a pro-active thing, unlike sitting in a van with a cash-camera generating revenue and achieving nothing in improved safety terms. You can definately say that if wearing belts was done by 100% of drivers and passengers, deaths would reduce - even Princess Di would still be with us.

Ah, but the Chief Constable gets "points" towards his Knighthood if he installs cameras like the Government wants but none for just saving lives.

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

I know Cooperman, I was referring to this:



Of course it is safer to wear a seatbelt, but how that makes them dangerous drivers is still beyond me!!

The whole rhetoric is a mixture of complete bollocks and stating the bleeding obvious.

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It's tricky doing nothing - you never know when you're finished

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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

I heard the report from the 'study group' which has reseached thoroughly and discovered that if it takes longer for a trauma patient in the care of para-medics to reach a casualty unit at a hospital, then the patient is more likely to die. One might wonder what the academic qualification of the people in the 'study group' are. You know, I think I'll take a degree in 'Stating the Bloody Obvious'. As a thesis I could determine that the longer you stand out in the rain, the wetter you get and for my masters degree maybe I could investigate whether the wetter you become, the longer it takes to get dry!
But, I digress. Now I live in a village called Earith in Cambridgeshire and our High Street is narrow, not completely straight and has 2 very hard-to-see pedestrian crossings. We have repeatedly asked for the 2 crossings to be replaced by one traffic light controlled crossing only to be told recently, and yet again, that there is absolutely no money available for this type of improvement. No, of course not, it just all been wasted on the useless SPECS system on the nearby A14, a system which will encourage more traffic to miss out that bit of the A14 and drive along our High Street instead.
As a member of our village road-safety committee, I had a long letter which I sent to the Cambs HA published in our village magazine. This really castigated the HA for their total waste of OUR money on SPECS when that money could have been jused to save lives. The personal feedback I have received as a result of that has been most encouraging so-far. This current set of fatal statistices just reinforces how hopeless the HA really are in road safety matters.

Well to be fair, the HA are only responsible for trunk roads, so they wouldn't have the authority to install a crossing in your village. But it's funny how local authorities seem to find money for speed cameras, but not for real safety measures like safe crossings and safety barriers.

Any road death is a tragedy.

Its criminal that the 'road safety industry' chose to focus on the easy option of targetting the speed limit then crowing as their RTTM aided 'successes' kicked in.

Paul and others here have continually pointed out the falicy of their approach and predicted this rise in deaths.

Of course a stronger dose of the useless medicine will now be applied.

Anyone who has been a supporter of aggressive speed camera enforcement and the 'speed kills' dogma has blood on their hands.