THE ASSOCIATION OF BRITISH DRIVERS
IN SCOTLAND
Mobile Laser Based Speed Cameras
Commenting on the new laser based mobile speed cameras (Press & Journal 12/11), Superintendent Dave Cormack of Grampian Police is quite correct when he says:
"Those drivers who comply with speed limits and drive at sensible speeds have nothing to fear."
The Force's own statistics for the last complete year (2001) show that excessive speed was responsible for 9.0% of accidents where causation was logged. I'm sure those road users responsible for causing the other 91% of accidents would welcome speed cameras, because they have nothing to fear from them either.
Consider the unobservant, drunk or drugged motorist who cruises past the device, mindfully travelling below the limit. He/she might be driving a defective car, with defective lights, brakes and tyres, with no insurance, no MOT and no licence, whilst concentrating on a handheld mobile phone call and not the road. Obviously an extreme scenario - but a motorist committing at least one of the above offences also has nothing to fear from camera detection. Isn't that great?
In the same way that painting by numbers doesn't magically turn someone into Rembrandt, driving to a number on a stick isn't automatically the formula for a good, safe driver.
Supt McCormack also states that 3,443 people were killed on the roads nationally in 2001. This is true. It should be noted though, that the most dramatic falls in road deaths occurred BEFORE speed cameras or speed reduction policies were in widespread use. From the introduction of cameras in 1992, reductions in road deaths gradually stalled and have now increased. 2001 compared to 2000 delivered the largest year on year increase for over a decade from 3,409 to 3,443. Then as now - there have never been so many speed cameras on UK roads…
Is it such a good thing that funding for the Camera Partnership comes solely from the fines generated from speeding?
Can you think of another offence where the fines generated fund the staff that promote, justify and benefit directly from the ongoing targeting of that offence?
Simon Tonks
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