Saturday, April 7, 2007

Speed cameras causing fatalities in the UK

http://www.pistonheads.com/speed/default.asp?storyId=16025

(Keeping in mind this is United Kingdom business, not American, but the truth I'm sure, doesn't just exist on their side of the pond.)

The government decided that the side effects of blanket speed camera usage warranted investigation, the transport department discovered that neglect of a statistical bias had exaggerated the main benefit of speed cameras by 400 per cent.

In September 2006, the proportion of injury crashes involving any speeding vehicle nationally was found to be only five per cent -- not one-third as previously claimed.

And now Safe Speed has learned via a Freedom of Information request that the speed camera side effects research, announced in May 2005, had been axed. (bad information research... ain't going to continue)

According to the Safe Speed campaign: " speed cameras are making road safety worse. But the Department for Transport doesn't want to hear this, which is the only possible reason for axing the most important research."

Safe Speed campaign founder Paul Smith said: "Speed camera policy has failed catastrophically. Department for Transport knows that it has failed but won't admit its deadly mistake and pull the plug. Officials seem to be hoping that speed cameras will fade away over the next five years, yet they know that the policy isn't working and is costing lives.

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