News: for immediate release

Theresa May has announced a ten point Conservative plan to restore confidence in our speed cameras. Safe Speed says it doesn't go anywhere near far enough. In particular:

* It doesn't say they will disband the greedy speed camera partnerships.

* It gives no indication about camera removal criteria - we can't tell if cameras are beneficial to safety in a particular location without a very long history because accidents are rare and randomly distributed.

* Publishing the revenue figures generated by cameras sounds like a good idea but will perpetuate the belief that cameras are used to generate revenue.

* It does nothing to address the serious dangers that cameras cause by distraction and distortion of drivers' priorities.

* Imposing 1 to 6 points with a fixed penalty system can only work if there are speed bands. This provides an additional layer of false and dangerous emphasis on numerical speed.

Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign said: "It's great to see the Conservatives placing emphasis on driver skills and education, but speed cameras have had their day. Public confidence has been destroyed by greed and mismanagement and cannot be restored. In any case the whole speed camera idea is based on hopelessly flawed thinking and inadequate research. Speed cameras must all be scrapped and we must get back to the road safety policies that gave us the safest roads in the World in the first place."

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notes for editors:

See the Conservative statement:

http://www.conservatives.com/news/article.cfm?obj_id=98176

When we issued this press release, the Conservative web site carried the following information:

Later this page was updated to include the welcome announcement that the Camera Partnerships would also be disbanded.
 

About Safe Speed:

Since setting up Safe Speed in 2001, Paul Smith, 48, an advanced motorist and road safety enthusiast, and a professional engineer of 25 years UK experience, has carried out in excess  of 4,500 hours of research into the
overall effects of speed camera policy on UK road safety. We believe that this is more work in more detail than anything carried out by any other organisation. Paul's surprising conclusion is that overall speed cameras make our roads more dangerous. Paul has identified and reported a number of major flaws and false assumptions in the claims made for speed cameras, and the whole "speed kills"  system of road safety.     

The inescapable conclusion is that we should urgently return to the excellent road safety policies that gave us in the UK the safest roads in the World in the first place.     

Safe Speed does not campaign against speed limits or appropriate enforcement of motoring laws, but argues vigorously that automated speed enforcement is neither safe nor appropriate.     
  

Contact Safe Speed:

web: http://www.safespeed.org.uk     
email : psmith@safespeed.org.uk    
telephone: 01862 832000 anytime.     
mobile: 07799 045553 note: the mobile does not work well at our office. Always try land line first.     
Location: North Scotland     

We are available for press and media interviews.