Sentinel Comment: Do we need cameras?

The news that one of Staffordshire's oldest road speed cameras is about to be decommissioned may mean some local drivers feel they can sleep easier in their beds. The camera set up on Silverdale High Street more than 12 years ago will undoubtedly have caught out scores of motorists. The Staffordshire Safer Roads Partnership has now decided speed humps built on the same road in 2005 have slowed down cars to such an extent, a camera is no longer needed. At this point it is probably churlish to ask why a camera has been needed, for last four years, to enforce a 30mph limit on a road with traffic calming bumps? The removal of the yellow box in Silverdale is, after all, part of a county-wide review of all camera sites. However it is certainly an appropriate time to again point out that the majority of ordinary law-abiding motorists still regard speed cameras as a lucrative public income generator rather than a necessary public safety measure.

E very year, British motorists cough up £100m in speeding fines after being collared by speed cameras. A large wedge of this money is then spent on... more speed cameras. The authorities attempt to justify the cameras by quoting a variety of impossible-to-prove (or disprove), potentially-specious "facts". Only this week, the county council asserted that cameras "deliver a 63 per cent reduction in death and serious injury". No further evidence is offered to back up this very specific statement. Which is precisely the problem. For until the powers-that-be win over motorists, drivers will always believe it isn't only Silverdale High Street which should be rid of speed cameras.

The Sentinel, 16/10/09

Staffs Speed Camera Catch Halved in Two Years

A Press Release of 26/10/09 from Staffordshire County Council below. I take what Mike Maryon says with a large pinch of salt - the halving of speeding tickets coincides with new rules preventing camera partnerships keeping the money from fines and financing yet more cameras - so the incentive to issue fines has been removed. I've previously shown that there is no correlation with speed cameras and road fatalities in Staffordshire here. I think that the figures should be 70,000 and 35,000 rather than 7,000 and 3,500.

Speed camera catch halved in two years

Staffordshire road safety chiefs have revealed that the county's speed cameras are bringing in only half as many convictions for speeding as they did a decade ago.

The stunning revelation comes as the county has bagged up a device in Silverdale - as the council commits itself to removing cameras that are obsolete.

Speed cameras are saving lives and not making money - that's the message from Staffordshire's road safety chiefs.

Over the last two years the number of tickets issued to speeding motorists from speed cameras has halved from over 7,000 to 3,500. At the same time Staffordshire has become the top road safety county.

Catching motorists is not and never has been an objective, making Staffordshire's roads safer is. Staffordshire does not financially benefit from the minority of motorists who receive a fixed penalty fine.

And the number of casualties at camera locations remains low - with an average drop of over 60% compared to the pre-camera situation.

That's why Staffordshire is officially the safest county in England - with less than half the casualties than many other comparative councils.

Statistical analysis from government shows that Staffordshire's road suffered just over three casualties per 100,000 miles, compared with just over four for Shropshire and Warwickshire, over six for Cheshire and Derbyshire, and eight for Nottinghamshire.

Staffordshire's cabinet member for highways Mike Maryon said the Staffordshire approach was paying dividends in saving lives.

"That's what the Staffordshire approach is all about. Cameras are just a small part of a much wider approach to driving home the road safety message. Campaigns, engineering solutions, education and training are all part of the mix.

"It's very pleasing that drivers appear to be getting the message. Speed cameras are working and slowing drivers down at the most dangerous locations

"When it comes to speed cameras, we only use them where there is a proven serious problem, and we will remove them if they are no longer needed.

"Those who claim they are there to make money are simply looking for an excuse for their dangerous driving. We would be delighted if no-one was caught speeding - then we could take them all out.

"But it's more deep seated than that. All the campaigning and education, training and awareness raising is getting through. We win award after award for innovation and creativity.

"Staffordshire is safer than other counties. It's official. But every death and injury is still a tragedy that could have been avoided. We have to keep on driving home the message that speeding can kill, and that drivers have a duty of care to the communities they drive through," he said.

Fatal Crash at Speed Camera Site, Birmingham A452

Birmingham Evening Mail, 31 October 2008: Teenager Dies in Chester Road smash

Staffordshire Traffic Police Numbers Drop 83.7% in 10 Years!

Despite the failure of Staffordshire's 260 plus speed cameras to have any impact on the county's road fatality trends, as demonstrated above (click on graph for a larger view), 94% of the £2.4 million road safety grant is being spent on maintaining speed cameras. The effect of the speed camera programme on the number of traffic police has been devastating: in 1998-9 there were 208, down to just 34 for 2007-8 - a staggering fall of 83.7%. Speed cameras don't catch drunk or other illegal, dangerous drivers - only police patrols can. Staffordshire police admit the fall is due to speed cameras and ANPR, but cliam that ordinary police patrol officers are trained to deal with traffic offences. Not so. Traffic police were the elite officers for detecting vehicle offences and can't be adequately replaced by ordinary patrols.

Trafpol numbers in other areas: 1998/9, 2007/8, % fall

North Wales: 236, 90, 61.9%

Cheshire: 205, 94, 54.1%

West Mercia: 238, 128, 46.2%

Surrey: 177, 98, 44.6%

West Midlands 405, 352

Figures from Auto Express and Express & Star:

Fears over lack of traffic police

Swindon Council Scraps Fixed Speed Cameras

Swindon Councillors have voted to withdraw the £320,000 funding for fixed speed cameras and spend the money on genuine safety measures. Road deaths in Swindon went up last year. Peter Greenhalgh, the Tory councillor who proposed the idea, told BBC Radio 5 Live the current road safety policy was not working, "The Department for Transport annual results - published on the 25th of September - show that, nationally, only 6% of accidents are caused by people breaking speed limits and yet almost 100% of the government's road safety money is being invested in speed cameras," he said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7685550.stm

See ABD Mercia's detailed examination of speed camera statistics:

http://abdmercia.blogspot.com/2008/09/detailed-examination-of-speed-camera.html

and a histogram of road fatalities in Staffordshire 1992 to 2006:

http://abdmercia.blogspot.com/2008/09/staffordshire-road-fatalities-1992-2006.html

Walsall Council are also reviewing their speed camera policy.

Caught on Camera - Revenue Raising in Warwickshire

Photographs and comments from Keith:

The white 08 registered Vauxhall Movano has no visible markings on the front to indicate that it is a police vehicle, the sides have some silver reflective stripes and the rear doors have yellow and red markings around the heavily tinted rear windows.

No where on the vehicle are the camera warning signs that have been a feature of the Ford Transit talivans used by Warwickshire previously and which feature on virtually every other area's talivans.

To the majority of motorists this new van could pass for a road contractor's vehicle. The new van has been seen lurking in Merevale Lane Grendon near Atherstone, the B4116, in a little used farm gateway just downhill from Merevale Church. The road is very rural and has a 50 mph speed limit for 75% of its length. The tally van has been positioned right at the end of the 50 mph limit to trap motorists who speed up early to the current 60 mph limits where their speed increase is assisted by the downhill nature of this section of road.

The talivan has been spotted here around 4.30 pm on Thursday October 16th 2008 ready to trap people returning from work.

With hardly any residents, excellent visibility and pedestrians a rarity on this section it is difficult to see how placing this speed trap here can be described as a safety measure.

The cynical omission off the usual talivan markings, the cessation of Warwickshire County Council publishing the daily movements of its talivans on its website combined with the imminent imposition of a 50 mph speed limit on virtually every rural road in Warwickshire says all we need to know about the true purpose of the safety camera partnership which is to raise as much revenue as possible whilst depriving otherwise law abiding hard working citizens.

Another comment from an ABD member:

I saw that there a week or so ago, it is one of my alternative routes to work, I wasn't even sure it was a Talivan, it looked as though it could just as easily have been a maintenance van working at the church.

Stupid limit anyway. The only hazard is the hill crest and then only if you are travelling towards the A5, yet 3/4 of the whole road has a 50 limit.

And don't get me started on the idiotic pheasant warning signs!