Safe Speed Forums

Road deaths dropped 14 per cent in three months while speed cameras were being axed or switched off.

Fatalities over a year fell 21 per cent to a record low, Department for Transport figures show.

But more than half of Britain’s 6,000 speed cameras are now switched off at any one time as councils try to save money.

Road safety experts say this shows that more than two decades of obsession with the devices has been misplaced.

Even the former police chief turned road safety expert who installed Britain’s first speed camera nearly 20 years ago said the figures showed there had been an ‘over-emphasis’ on cameras.

There were 510 road deaths between July and September 2010, compared with 596 in the same period in 2009 – a fall of 14 per cent.

The number killed or seriously injured fell by 5 per cent, from 7,115 to 6,740. But traffic volume fell by only 1.3 per cent.

During the last year to September, fatalities fell below 2,000 for the first time since records began. There were 1,900, compared with 2,402 in the year to September 2009.

Total road casualties are down 3 per cent while the number killed or seriously injured is down 8 per cent over the same time.

The figures were seized on by road safety campaigners who believe that the boom in cameras over the past decade has had little to do with life-saving and more to do with fund-raising.

Speed cameras are being removed or turned off because of funding changes and spending cuts, the Daily Mail revealed last week. More than half – 44.7 per cent – are now switched off.

Claire Armstrong, of the anti-camera group Safespeed, said: ‘When we have a recession we expect the fatalities to fall because people travel less and are therefore exposed to less danger. Any benefit is nothing to do with cameras.’

AA president Edmund King said: ‘We need more traffic police who can stop a drunk or drugged driver, a dangerous or reckless driver, and someone tailgating.

Not in Cumbria we wont!

Fatals UP in 2010.

Claire, I'm a bit curious as to why you took that line? It almost seems as if we're arguing against ourselves now? I'd have thought it might have been more along the lines of "...Claire Armstrong, of the anti-camera group Safespeed, said: ‘I BLOODY TOLD YOU SO!!!!!' "

The article even takes the drop in travelling into account (1.3%). Clearly, people do obviously travel less, but the stats fell faster tha the travelling! BEsides, I think the lack of maintenance in a recession and the lower rate of replacement of the national fleet probably offset the lower distances travelled don't they?

Claire, I'm a bit curious as to why you took that line? It almost seems as if we're arguing against ourselves now? I'd have thought it might have been more along the lines of "...Claire Armstrong, of the anti-camera group Safespeed, said: ‘I BLOODY TOLD YOU SO!!!!!' "

The article even takes the drop in travelling into account (1.3%). Clearly, people do obviously travel less, but the stats fell faster tha the travelling! BEsides, I think the lack of maintenance in a recession and the lower rate of replacement of the national fleet probably offset the lower distances travelled don't they?