Safe Speed Forums

Speed cameras 'don't stop REAL danger motorists' despite 300% increase during Labour government
Despite bringing an almost 300 per cent increase in fines, speed cameras do nothing to curb reckless driving, damning road safety reports revealed yesterday.
Transport Secretary Philip Hammond said Labour had for 13 years relied on the ‘easy option’ of using cameras to catch speeding drivers.
But the former government had failed to tackle the hard core of serious and serial offenders who cause the most danger, he declared.

Mr Hammond, who has vowed to ‘end the war on the motorist’ was speaking as the Transport Department released a series of unpublished reports into driver behaviour commissioned – though not published – when Labour was in power.
One, called Behavioural Research in Road Safety 2008, by academics at the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) and Brunel University, highlighted an astonishing 287 per cent rise in speeding endorsements from 1995 to 2005, to 2.239million.
But the report concluded: ‘With the surge in speed camera devices between 1995 and 2005, especially since 2002, the number of convicted speeding drivers has increased.

‘However, individuals’ subsequent pattern of convictions has largely remained unchanged – so drivers are behaving much as before.
‘Drivers who had been previously disqualified were most likely to “manipulate” cameras and least likely to comply with them.’
A separate Transport Department report carried out by TRL revealed how, between 1997 and 2007, the number of penalty points issued to speeding motorists rose by 88 per cent – while those for careless driving fell by 53 per cent.
Ignored: Labour commissioned the reports when they were in power but never published their findings
Ministers say they are concerned that while cameras might catch a motorist driving a few miles per hour over the speed limit, but otherwise safely on empty roads, there was not enough emphasis on police patrols to spot reckless driving which puts more lives at risk.
Mr Hammond said: ‘Speed cameras may appear an easy option but these reports show that if we really want to improve road safety we need to tackle all forms of reckless behaviour.’
Department of Transport figures revealed that 2,222 people were killed on Britain’s roads in 2009, an all-time low after a 12 per cent fall from 2008.
The total killed or injured as a result of drink-driving also fell to a record low last year, according to Government statistics released yesterday – with provisional figures showing the number of deaths dropping to 380.
But child cyclist deaths and serious injuries rose 10 per cent in 2009 and serious injuries to all cyclists rose 6 per cent.
Road safety charity Brake highlighted how yesterday’s reports revealed that the economic cost of road casualties is almost twice as high as previous estimates – standing now at £33billion, with each road death costing £1.6million.
Robert Gifford, of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety, also said: ‘It is encouraging to see in the report a fall in deaths of 16 per cent year on year among young car occupants.
It is also good to see a fall of 71 in the number of fatal crashes involving young car drivers ‘But drinking and driving still accounts for 17 per cent of all road deaths.’

...between 1997 and 2007, the number of penalty points issued to speeding motorists rose by 88 per cent – while those for careless driving fell by 53 per cent.

But child cyclist deaths and serious injuries rose 10 per cent in 2009 and serious injuries to all cyclists rose 6 per cent.

Evolution takes care of careless cyclists !
And their estates can still litigate against the driver anyway.
And the new lot are:
1. Ending speed cameras.
2. Cutting the police budget.

So, motorists are becoming less careless while cyclists are becoming more accident prone (especially children).

Mr Hammond, who has vowed to ‘end the war on the motorist’

Or there the number of cyclists is increasing and the number of child cyclists is increasing even more? Raw numbersof KSIs don't tell you much.