UK Road safety campaigners Safe Speed have discovered a serious blunder in therules for speed camera placement. No speed camera may be placed wherecompetent and careful drivers consider it dangerous to exceed the speed limit,and ALL speed cameras MUST be placed where competent and careful driverconsider that exceeding the speed limit is safe and reasonable.
The technical details of the blunder are not easily explained - otherwise itwould have been spotted long ago - but in the simplest terms traffic engineershave long known that a majority of motorists set a safe speed according to theconditions. Yet the rules for camera placement require that some of the safemajority are speeding at an approved camera site. Equally, NO CAMERA MAY BEPLACED placed where our most careful and competent drivers consider thatexceeding a speed limit would be dangerous.
Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed campaign, said: "This is a blunder ofepic proportions and is ample evidence of massive incompetence behind speedcamera policy in the UK. This blunder explains exactly why motorists arecomplaining that cameras are in the wrong places, yet the DfT maintains thatcameras are sited according to the rules. The error is in the rules.
The use of speed cameras remains highly controversial, with growing publichatred and distrust of the system. Claims of casualty reductions have yet tobe reflected in the national figures.
Paul Smith continues: "This is so serious that we must demand an immediatecessation of all speed camera operations pending a review by genuinelyindependent experts. It's is clear that most speed cameras, most of the timeare trapping competent and careful drivers. Where is the road safety benefitin that?"
Since there is an important and basic flaw in the rules for camera placementwe are forced to question the competence of those that made the rules. If theygot this so wrong, what else did they get wrong?
Safe Speed demands an immediate return to the road safety policies that gaveus in the UK the safest roads in the World in the first place.
