Drivers went faster when the cameras were off
In The Oxford Mail of April 1st 2011 Supt Rob Povey, Head of Roads Policing, was quoted as saying that there was clear evidence to show that drivers had speeded up when Oxfordshire’s speed cameras were switched off.
He said: “It is a fact that more people died on the roads in 2010 than they did in 2009. And it is a fact that people were speeding up while the cameras were turned off.”
After just a month of the switch-off, the Thames Valley Safer Roads Partnership – the organisation which ran speed cameras in the region – reported up to four times as many speeding offences taking place at camera sites.
The site with the largest increase in offences was at Cumnor Hill/West Way in Botley, West Oxford. A camera there recorded the number of speeding drivers increasing from an average of 10 per day between the period 2007-2010, to 40.7 per day during a nine-day period after the switch-off.
“The figures here show people are speeding up. We support the cameras because we think they reduce people's speeds, and we believe speed kills.”
Comment: The facts support Supt Povey. From an analysis of reported accidents in the UK in 2009 the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) concludes:
“Inappropriate speed (exceeding the speed limit and driving too fast for the conditions) contributes to 13% of all injuries, 15% of serious injuries and 26% of deaths on the road. Almost 600 people are killed each year on Britain’s roads, and 3,600 are seriously injured, because drivers and riders travel too fast".
"On its own, exceeding the speed limit, contributes to 7% of all seriously injured road casualties and 14% of all road fatalities, resulting in the deaths of 241 people, and serious injuries to almost 1,500 more people, in 2010”.See the latest RoSPA Factsheet on speeding and the effectiveness of speed camera.