Speed Camera News UK NEWS: SPEED CAMERAS MAY HAVE CAUSED 28,000 CRASHES
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/191443/Speed-cameras-may-have-caused-28-000-crashes
UK NEWS: SPEED CAMERAS MAY HAVE CAUSED 28,000 CRASHES
Speed cameras might have caused up to 28,000 road crashes
Friday August 6,2010
By Nathan Rao Have your say(0)
THE case for Britain’s speed cameras has been dealt another blow with the revelation they may have caused almost 28,000 road crashes.
Research published today suggests cameras contributed to 27,900 of the 2.7 million collisions in the UK since becoming widely used in 2001.
One in 100 motorists claims to have had an accident after braking suddenly or taking their eyes off the road to check their speed at a camera site.
The findings also reveal 31 per cent of drivers have witnessed “erratic behaviour” by motorists trying to avoid the dreaded flash.
Hugh Bladon, founder member of the Association of British Drivers, said: “We all know you are not paying full attention to the road ahead if you are concentrating on looking for speed cameras. You can’t help but look at a camera or a camera van if you see one.
It is human nature. Like pretty girls in short skirts, it is another distraction.
"We all know you are not paying full attention to the road ahead if you are concentrating on looking for speed cameras."
Hugh Bladon
“We need to get police back on the roads. Cameras cannot see if a driver is driving dangerously or on drugs but a police officer can detect that.”
Coming at the start of the big switch-off of many of Britain’s 6,000 speed traps, the study by insurance firm LV= could be another nail in the coffin of the much-maligned Gatso.
This week Oxfordshire officially became a camera-free zone and many other areas in the UK are set to follow suit after the Coalition Government cut road safety funding.
Local authorities have few resources to pay for cameras as revenue from the “money-making” machines goes straight to the Treasury.
The latest research, based on a poll of 1,532 drivers, reveals 46 per cent find cameras distracting and 11 per cent believe they increase their risk of crashes.
Eighty-one per cent automatically look at their speedometer whenever they see one and five per cent admit to risking a rear-end shunt by braking suddenly. The vast majority of drivers polled confess to breaking speed limits and 46 per cent believe cameras turn motorists into cash cows milked by the Government.
Claire Armstrong, co-founder of Safe Speed, said: “The awful tragedy is that speed cameras have made the roads more dangerous by replacing effective policies, distorting priorities and distracting drivers.
“We have long called for the removal of all speed cameras as this scheme is a flawed road safety policy. The sooner it ends, the sooner we can return to having the safest roads in the world.”
But Julie Townsend, of road safety charity Brake, said turning off cameras was “an insult to those crying out for measures to cut speeds in their neighbourhoods and those families bereaved by speed”.
(Ban the Cams note: THE ONLY INSULT IS THE CONTINUED LIES BY THE SCAMERA SIDE TO TRY TO JUSTIFY THIS FAILED POLICY!)
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