Safe Speed Forums

Keighley road safety
8:00am Thursday 18th February 2010
By Alistair Shand »

One of Keighley’s busiest streets has been identified as a potential location for a new speed camera.
Mobile equipment is earmarked for use in North Street as part of a scheme to introduce cameras at 16 more sites across the district.
Bradford Council said this week that the street, which has a 30mph speed limit, fitted the criteria because of its high accident rate — five in three years.
One other Keighley location — Oakworth Road, between the junctions of Exley Road and West Lane — is included in the £320,000 package. A fixed camera would be installed there.
Funding was approved on Tuesday by the council’s executive.

Senior traffic engineer Mike Holdsworth told the Keighley News: “There have been one fatal and four serious road traffic accidents in North Street in three years, which is a high figure. It’s mainly been problems at junctions. In terms of speed, the issue is more an evening one.
“We are at a very early stage with this and need to do a lot more investigation.” Steve Thornton, Bradford Council’s principal traffic engineer, said a major survey had been carried out of the whole Bradford district to look at the need for speed cameras. “It showed a problem with speed and that needs to be dealt with,” he said.
“We have identified 16 sites where the injuries and speeds combined indicated a need for cameras — either fixed or mobile. There’s real life-saving potential.”

Mr Thornton said the executive had already approved an action plan to improve safety.
The latest move comes as full-year figures reveal that targets to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on the district’s roads were not met for four years between 2005 and 2008, with casualties rising by 10 per cent.
Preliminary figures forecast a 20 per cent reduction in serious accidents last year.
Research has shown that the Bradford district has fewer safety cameras in relation to the numbers of fatal or serious injury accidents than other West Yorkshire authorities.
And statistics also show that there is an average 60 per cent reduction in serious road accidents at blackspots after fixed speed cameras are installed.
Police have pledged their support to improve the safety of the district’s roads.
Chief Inspector Steve Thomas, of Airedale and North Bradford Police, said: “Any serious injury or death on our roads is one too many and over the years Airedale and North Bradford Police have worked extremely hard to increase road safety.
“We have a dedicated Road Traffic Unit which carries out high visibility safety patrols and a number of casualty reduction operations addressing issues such as speed, seatbelt use, alcohol and vehicle worthiness.”

One of Keighley’s busiest streets has been identified as a potential location for a new speed camera.

...fitted the criteria because of its high accident rate — five in three years.

...“There have been one fatal and four serious road traffic accidents in North Street in three years, which is a high figure.

And statistics also show that there is an average 60 per cent reduction in serious road accidents at blackspots after fixed speed cameras are installed.

How dare they use this statistic to introduce a speed camera.