Department for Transport heavy concentration on vehicle speeds is missing the point and more importantly missing the opportunity to save lives on our roads says Safe Speed.

The new report [1] contains (on page 42) :

"Exceeding speed limit was attributed to 3 per cent of cars involved in accidents, while travelling too fast for conditions was attributed to 6 per cent. For fatal accidents these figures are 10 per cent and 13 per cent respectively."

And see especially See especially Safe Speed PRhttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/SafeSpeedPR/message/393Where we revealed that Department for Transport figures provided to the Transport Select Committee showed that 98% of crashes involving drivers over 25 did not have 'exceeding speed limit' as a contributory factor.

Even those crashes that do involve 'exceeding a speed limit':

- Frequently involve reckless behaviours which cause both the speed and the crash.

- Frequently involve young drivers who have not developed skills or who have 'bad attitudes'

- Involve many crashes where exceeding the speed limit was only coded as a 'possible' contributory factor.

- Sometimes involve stolen cars where the behaviours involved are not representative of normal road users.

- Fatal crashes involving a vehicle exceeding a speed limit have risen from 12% last year to 14% this year indicating that speed camera policy is NOT reducing the proportions of such crashes.

Paul Smith, founder of SafeSpeed.org.uk, said: "While Department for Transport fiddles with 'speed management policy', their own figures reveal that speeding contributes to very few crashes. The problem is that DfT's 'speed management'is a massive distraction from the things that really matter. We have catalogued 40 negative side effects [2] arising from speed cameras alone."

"At its simplest, some drivers are too busy looking at their speedos to pay proper attention to the traffic around them."

"Department for Transport have quite obviously failed to consider road safety as a system with road user quality underpinning everything else. That's the reality. Their policies are fantasy and their own figures prove them to be so."

"Department for Transport road safety policies have been missing the opportunity to save lives for a decade or more. This must stop."