Safe Speed Forums

Did anyone else spot this on BBC News?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tyne/3508092.stm

"Speed camera vans 'more visible'

Vehicles used by speed camera teams in Northumberland and Tyne and Wear have been given a facelift to make them more visible.
The new livery is part of the safety camera partnership's aim to ensure it operates fairly and openly, and that vehicles are identifiable.

Cameras can only be situated where there is a history of road accidents over the past three years.

Project leaders have stressed they do not look to catch people out.

The Safe Speed for Life campaign logo has been added to the vans, and a Northumbria Police badge now appears on the doors.

'Slow down'

This is in addition to the words "camera enforcement unit" under a safety camera logo on the doors.

Project manager Ray King said: "We have no interest in hiding our cameras or enforcement vehicles as we want drivers to realise they are in an area which has a collision history, and slow down as a result.

"It is a fact that just a few miles over the limit can make a real difference to whether someone lives or dies."

The units are situated in areas where at least 20% of drivers are believed to be breaking the speed limit and where there are no other short-term engineering solutions available.

Mr King said: "We do not want to catch motorists. Our aim is to reduce the number of people killed and seriously injured on our roads by slowing down traffic at known collision hotspots.

"If you keep to the speed limit then you have nothing to worry about."

Two things to note:

(1) The "Safe Speed for Life" campaign logo - Paul, have they asked you about using your campaign title for this?

(2) The closing sentence - "If you keep to the speed limit then you have nothing to worry about." B*ll*cks on stilts, as I'm sure we all agree.

Have our Northumbian contingent noticed any changes, I wonder?

Absolutely not. I have lawyers looking at it. I'm expecting to hear something later this week.

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

Good for you, best of luck.

Incidentally, I notice that the project manager is Ray King, presumably what they do with the fine income

The BBC News article contained a picture of their van clearly showing their website address www.safespeedforlife.co.uk

The site contains a Q&A section and they present the opportunity to ask further questions to appear in this section.

I have asked them:

"Your organisation has a very similar name to the Safespeed campaign www.safespeed.org.uk.

Could you please explain how you are connected with Safespeed. Reviewing the content of your site, there appears to be little of the intelligent approach to road safety that I would have expected from an organisation bearing the name safe speed for life. In fact the opposite seems to be true. Have you chosen the name deliberately to mislead people or to discredit the excellent work of the Safespeed campaign?

I will understand if you don't publish this question on your website but I would appreciate a reply."

Let's see if it gets included!

Regards
Jim Brooks

I always said that SafeSpeed wasn't just for Christmas...