Safe Speed Forums

http://www.shstar.co.uk/story.asp?intid=1771

Fact: As cameras increased, so did deaths.
Fact: There were few A325 accidents - and no fatalities
Fact: In three years, only two A325 accidents were definitely speed related.

by CLIFF MOGG

ALDERSHOT MP Gerald Howarth has accused Hampshire police of “hyping up” accidents to justify targeting drivers with a speed camera on the A325 at Farnborough.
He made the claim after being given details of the number of accidents which have occurred on the dual carriageway, between the Clockhouse Roundabout and the former Queen’s Hotel, during the past three years.
The figures released by the Hampshire Safety Camera Partnership reveal there were only seven serious accidents during that period, none involving fatalities.
In one case speed was not a factor, and in four cases it was possibly a factor. There were just two accidents definitely caused by speeding drivers.
Mr Howarth said the statistics showed that the stretch of road was “hardly an accident blackspot”, although it was a rich source of fines levied on motorists.
His findings follow growing protests from drivers who have been “clocked” by a police camera and fined for often travelling at just over the 30mph speed limit on the dual carriageway.
“The police have been trying to justify their intensive campaign on the grounds that the road is unduly dangerous,” he said.
But the statistics have blown a hole in this argument. “Hampshire traffic police have been disappointingly misleading in the way they have hyped up accidents on the Farnborough Road,” said Mr Howarth.
“I am all for dangerous drivers being penalised, and I am not opposed to cameras in principle, but persecuting ordinary motorists is not the answer.”
He also crossed swords with Hampshire police chief Paul Kernaghan who told him in a letter that the speed “traps” were operated by officers using “highly conspicuous police vehicles.”
Mr Howarth said that, on the contrary, the camera van used to trap motorists on the A325 was usually parked almost out of sight.
It is often parked on the Farnborough Road, facing north by the Pinehurst roundabout, he continued, where drivers could not see it until rounding the corner where they were immediately targeted.
He added evidence nationally indicated that speed cameras do not save lives. In Hampshire, he said, the number of cameras has increased from 23 in 2001 to 51 in the first 11 months of last year.
“Yet the number of people killed in fatal car crashes jumped from 69 to 104,” said Mr Howarth.
He added: “It is time the police recognised that their policy is not producing safer roads and, worse still, is alienating the public.”

STAR COMMENT
Deluded senior policemen, supported by dim, politically correct “politicians,” insist that speed cameras “save lives.” A whole industry has sprung up to spread this lie, paid for by fines from long-suffering drivers.
The facts show otherwise. Not only have road deaths rocketed by a third in Hampshire, commonsense and observation show the wretched Big Brother cameras are making driving worse, by encouraging people to brake suddenly or drive along with eyes glued to their speedos.
Those who have allowed driving along the A325 to become a nightmare, with creeping coppers lurking in vans to nab “criminals” doing 36 mph, and illogical bus lanes, on which there seem to be virtually no buses, need to be booted out of their sinecures. This, by the way, means most local county councillors who have watched, thumbs in mouths, while this lunacy has enveloped us.
Drivers can fight back by joining the Association of British Drivers, getting the facts and lobbying hard (enquiries@abd.org.uk)
Meanwhile, Hampshire’s senior policemen might reflect on the side effect that their unfair, draconian attack on motorists is having. The feedback I get is that they are now universally disliked and regarded almost with contempt, as we all know that criminals get away with crime on a regular basis while the speed vans are zooming in on what I make no apologies for calling “law abiding citizens.” ALAN FRANKLIN

EXCELLENT!

I rang the editor - Alan Franklin - a brilliant new contact.

Thanks.

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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

No mate. That can't possibly be right. Last time I went through Farnborough the signs on the A325 clearly said 13 or so dead in the last year. In fact I think it's the same number every year as the signs never change. So you must be mistaken..... unless the signs are a lie?

For everyone who doesn't know the A325 through Farnborough, those signs have been up for years. Can't remember when I first saw them, but it was some time ago. Hmmm, maybe an FOI request about the signs is in order. Exactly when were they put up and to which 12 month period do they refer. If the answer, assuming there is one, shows the warning to be well out of date, what should be the next move?

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Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler - Einstein

I'm sure this was posted a couple of weeks back, the paper looks like being an excellent local contact - at last a local paper with balls!

Gareth

A lot of local papers are in effect castrated (at least on matters of public policy rather than going after "evil speeding drivers") by the amount of local council advertising they carry

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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

From what I've seen of it the Surrey-Hants Star has also been very critical of a traffic calming scheme outside Fleet, especially IIRC when locals complained about it and the council (Hart?) did a "How can we improve it for you?" survey. I think it basically asked if they wanted the traffic calming to be extended or to remain the same. What I don't think anybody asked was if the locals wanted rid of the damn thing altogether.

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Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler - Einstein

Yes there was something in my local rag about a traffic calming project that was unwanted. The council then sent a standard survey which has questions that favour answers linked to their social engineering agendas.

e.g. do you think cyclist feel less safe or more safe since the implementation.

Interstingly can anyone think of a better name for traffic calming. For cameras we have scameras, talivan and scamerati, we must be able to think of something alternative to traffic calming. (e.g. traffic discouragement)

Traffic Slaloming ?

Tends to be the net result.

Traffic harming?

Traffic annoying?

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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

Or traffic enraging?

Well-known quotation (don't know who first said it): "The was no road rage before they invented traffic calming."

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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

perfect!