THE ASSOCIATION OF BRITISH DRIVERS
IN SCOTLAND
The North East Safety Camera Partnership (NESCP)
It is ironic that speed cameras are now referred to as safety cameras, yet vehicular speed is all they can measure. They cannot, for example, detect drugged or drunken drivers who will remain undetected, with potentially lethal consequences.
To most motorists, sensibly set speed limits in built-up areas make sense. However, the perception that only slow drivers are safe drivers is frankly absurd. Yet this is how road safety improvement initiatives are being dumbed-down, despite excessive speed accounting for just 7.3% of accidents, according to Transport Research Laboratory studies. We are not told how many accidents in Grampian are caused by excessive speed though.
There are obvious dangers in road safety initiatives complacently focusing on the easiest aspect of the Highway Code to measure and enforce at the expense of all others. The emphasis seems to be moving away from the duty of care that all road users - including pedestrians and cyclists - have towards each other to avoid accidents.Crediting accident reductions to cameras is flawed, as demonstrated by the highly varied results obtained where they are used. An accident, by definition, is an unexpected event, so accidents vary up and down naturally - with or without cameras.
If safety cameras are about reducing speed at accident blackspots, then each fine raised by a camera surely suggests failure. Yet nationally, many millions of pounds have been raised for the Treasury since 1992 when speed cameras were first introduced. A proportion of NESCP revenue will also go to the Treasury.
How can the authorities paper over the obvious cracks in their strategy? Easy. Use overly simplistic, emotive phrases like "speed kills", "only fools speed" and worst of all propose using a "people's court" of children in Grampian to blackmail drivers into paying a fine for largely victimless, technical offences.
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