Speed Cameras: life savers

Survey Shows Speed Cameras Save Lives

Before the twenty-one cameras were set up in the boroughs of Hillingdon, Hounslow, Richmond and Ealing, an average of 21 people died each year. Now the annual figure is about six - a drop of 70%.

The West London project was launched in late 1992. The results show that in the first three years:

• Fatal accidents fell 70% from 62 to 19;
• Serious accidents were down 28% from 666 to 483;
• Slight accidents decreased 8% from 3,074 to 2,832;
• The value of total accident savings is estimated at £20 million a year.

The experiment has proved what safety experts have always argued - that cutting rush-hour traffic speed saves lives. Besides the drop in road-deaths, serious accidents fell by 28% and those involving pedestrians by 41%.

Most camera locations are well-known to drivers, and it is no secret that, while every speeder triggers a double photo-flash, the cameras often contain no film. That is because police know the very presence of the cameras makes drivers slow down; but it is also because, under Treasury guidelines, money raised from fines cannot be used to pay for the cameras.

Transport Minister Gavin Strang tells the Today Programme that the Government is keen to increase the number of cameras, but is limited by available cash

Transport Minister Gavin Strang said that using funds raised from speeding fines for the purchase of more cameras would require a fundamental change in the law. It would mean decriminalising speeding, which the Government would be reluctant to do given the number of serious accidents that result from high speed driving.

The policeman's friend?

Brian MacKenzie of the Police Superintendents' Association gives his reaction on the Today Programme

Last year, 3,600 people were killed on Britain's roads and speed was the main cause in at least a third of all accidents. Initial reaction from the AA has been fairly positive: it said that cameras could be put to even greater use and called for better location of cameras which would lead to better targeting of speeding offenders.