Safe Speed Forums

You may have noticed that some people have questioned whether the speed camera switch off which was taking place around the country would lead to an increase in deaths on the roads.
It certainly aroused some debate on the Westmorland Gazette forum.

Cumbria County Council decided to continue funding speed cameras via the Cumbria Safety Camera Partnership - who have for some time been claiming the credit for bring accidents down to the former government's target... apparently ahead of schedule.

Some councils had decided to cut funding to cameras after the funding grant for road safety which they receive from government was slashed in the cuts.

Swindon had led the way before the cuts, after deciding that speeding was not the biggest cause of accidents, and that therefore other measures which could be deployed more cheaply would be just as if not more effective.

So how is Cumbria WITH cameras, shaping up compared to Swindon WITHOUT?

Well so far in Swindon, fatal accidents are down... sorry that should be THE fatal accident is down - but the time scale is statistically very small on which to base firm figures... (That never stopped the pro-camera lobby when presenting THEIR figures!).
In Cumbria? Well as of October, Cumbria had already experienced the same number of deaths as last year, with two months left to run - and tragically, a number of people have died on Cumbrian roads since, with TWO double fatalities on the A595 within a week of each other.

In Oxfordshire, the local Road Safety Partnership claimed that the number of drivers speeding went UP after the cameras were switched off, by 88% - but the Oxford Mail questioned those figures, after it was revealed that the figures for the same period the PREVIOUS year, showed that there had been a 4% DROP in the number of speeding drivers year on year!

So does the CSCP present an accurate case with it's figures?
There web site states:

Yes, illegal speeding is not mentioned there - and figures from Cumbria Police for the A591 between Kendal and Windermere had only 3% of accidents caused by speeding as a factor, in ALL accidents.
Despite those four major contributing factors being identified, CSCP go on to state:

Yes, considered yet not recorded!

The CSCP website http://www.cumbriasafetycameras.org/index.php is worse run than the Gazette website.
No news since 2007, and when you click on the ROADWORKS link....

They rely on the AA a lot... if you click on the link to ROAD SAFETY TIPS, the credit at the bottom of the page says:

In fact they didn't have any road safety advice on the site until I brought it to their attention!
(sorry - it's no laughing matter!)

So isn't it time we got rid of this sorry excuse for a road safety organisation, and put something more effective in it's place?
Well often, when asked, the relatives of victims say they want MORE speed cameras, as they would have saved their loved ones, but I think the time has come to look deeply at the statistics they bandy about, and see if their claim to be reducing accidents stands up to scrutiny.
Meanwhile leave the enforcement of traffic laws to the police, who are quite capable of punishing bad driving of ANY type when necessary, and give THEM a fair proportion of the road safety grant to do the job.

Oh, and those young drivers who met their deaths on the roads between 2001 and 2003 - before the CSCP started their operations in April 2003?
Well those two years saw the lowest fatalities on Cumbria's roads for some time - before they CLIMBED for FIVE years after the CSCP started their operations - only falling as more and more in car safety measures were introduced, as well as better paramedic care, and the Air Ambulance being able to intervene in Cumbria's remote locations!!
http://www.cumbriasafetycameras.org/facts.php?link=2010&display=block

Please do not confuse PUNISHING speeding motorists, with ROAD SAFETY - your life might depend on it!

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

I'm almost tempted to want to let them stay for a bit longer so I can hear how they try to "spin" their way out of the current rise! Doubtless it'll be something to do with the weather - even though that didn't start until part way through November!

There is no doubt that the weather played it's part... the two double fatals on the A595 are testament to that.
But that it the crux of the thread - they claim to have reduced accidents that had NOTHING to do with speeding.

To deny now that these latest accidents were within their control, is an admission that they were never in control in the first place!

I don't see how Craig Mackie can continue to support a set of measures (sorry a MEASURE) which is so obviously a waste of precious resources.
A great deal of those resources are spent on perpetuating their false premise that they are succeeding!

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

I fear that the (what to you and me seems patently obvious) argument that they can't admit to not being able to influence things over which they have no control is not likely to be appreciated by their "target audience". I expect they will continue to make their claims and I expect they will continue to devote precious resource to conducting more "vox-pop surveys" that appear to shore up the illusion of their own popularity!

We (and they!) know darned well that the "Cumberland Gap" isn't going to be turned back into dual carriageway any time soon, so last year's improvements were (clearly!) down to their efforts!