http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/ ... 64,00.html
Darling to curb speed camera overkill
Dipesh Gadher, Transport Correspondent
THE government is to order police forces to consider removing speed cameras which do little to improve road safety in a bid to stave off claims that they are being used to generate revenue for the Treasury.
This week Alistair Darling, the transport secretary, will publish the results of an audit of Britain?s 5,000 speed cameras, which will reveal accident rates at each site before and after a camera went up.
The move is part of a package of measures to target dangerous drivers while promoting ?fair? road safety policies. Ministers are drawing up legislative plans for roadside breath tests which can be used in court against suspected drink-drivers; to raise penalties on motorists who fail to declare who was behind the wheel of a speeding vehicle; and to endorse the licences of drivers flouting the mobile phone ban rather than simply fining them.
They want to give courts the power to send speeding motorists on rehabilitation courses and to exempt drivers of organ donor vehicles from speed limits. They also plan to test French-style picnic spots off motorways to give tired drivers the chance to take a break.
The measures are part of a planned road safety bill which could be included in the next Queen?s speech.
Darling is convinced that the ?overwhelming majority? of speed cameras are justified, but he admits that the location of some will need to be re-examined after his national audit.
Although he refused to speculate last week on how many this could involve, the siting of hundreds of cameras in the 1990s before the creation of a national strategy are likely to come under particular scrutiny. Department for Transport guidelines state that fixed cameras are generally supposed to be set up at accident blackspots where four people have been killed or seriously injured in speed- related incidents over three years.
?If these cameras are in the wrong place, if people have got it wrong, if things have moved on, then let?s be big enough to say ?Let?s look at it?,? said Darling.
?However, the evidence will show that the overwhelming majority are doing the job they are supposed to be doing. It?s necessary to nail this lie that the majority of speed cameras are there to raise money.?
Police chiefs predict that 3m motorists will receive £60 fines and three penalty points for speeding this year, against 260,000 in 1996. Police forces and local authorities keep most of the money to cover the cost of speed enforcement, but a surplus of £20m is expected to go to the Treasury this year.
A separate study, reviewing the progress of speed cameras over the past three years, is likely to show this week that they are cutting deaths and serious injuries by 35%.
Last month The Sunday Times revealed that the government is to introduce a flexible penalty points system for speeding motorists. Drivers caught marginally over the speed limit will incur two points; those far in excess will receive up to six points. At the moment the penalty is three points regardless of the gravity of the offence.
Other road safety plans being drawn up by Darling include giving police the power to breathalyse suspected drink-drivers with a ?one-stop? roadside test. At present a driver giving a positive reading has to undergo a further urine or blood test before he can be charged. However, new technology has made it possible for a roadside test to be conclusive and offered as evidence in court.
The transport department also wants to introduce tougher penalties for motorists who fail to declare who was behind the wheel at the time of a speeding offence or claim they cannot remember. In such cases the registered owner of a vehicle can be fined up to £1,000 and receive three penalty points, but that will be increased to six points.
Last year Christine Hamilton escaped a speeding conviction after she claimed she could not remember whether she or her husband Neil, the disgraced former Tory minister, was driving her car when it was caught travelling at 63mph in a temporary 50mph zone.
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Comment: Thar be trouble at the top. About time too.
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However, with the general public ill-informed to the extent that it is now, they will no doubt 'strike a balance' that is 'acceptable to all' (read brainwash the majority into believing that the fleecing is essential and is for our own good).
