News. For immediate release

Apparently an assistant chief constable in Manchester has been fined and received 6 penalty points on his driving licence today following his vehicle being recorded at 104mph on the M6(toll).

Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign said: "This illustrates the hypocrisy and utterly flawed nature of modern speed enforcement. The Police now enforce arbitrary speed limits irrespective of the circumstances and irrespective of danger caused. I don't imagine for one moment that [name] was driving dangerously or recklessly, so what on earth is the point of expending public money pursuing a purely technical violation? We can't expect to improve road safety unless we concentrate properly on real road dangers."

Paul continues: "I am sure that some members of the public will be outraged at the speed in this case, but that is just evidence of the dangerous gap in modern thinking. Far too often we fail to distinguish between "a safe speed for the conditions", (which is highly important) and our speed limits (which are no better than a very rough guide).

If the M6(toll) was in Germany it would have no speed limit and traffic would use it routinely at 120mph - with no safety concerns. It is very important indeed that drivers do not travel too fast for the conditions, but exceeding a speed limit in suitable conditions has no effect on safety. As we say: you can't measure safe driving in miles
per hour."

<ends>

Notes for editors.

Apparently Greater Manchester Police have issued a press statement. We
don't yet have a copy.

See:

http://www.safespeed.org.uk/stevethomas.html
 

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.