PR228: TRL says speed cameras useless at motorway roadworks

News: for immediate release

Safe Speed issued a Freedom of Information request to the DfT on July 5th
regarding motorway roadworks safety. The results have just been published.
One document makes it crystal clear that speed cameras have no influence on
the rate of injury.

In a study carried out for the Highways Agency by TRL Limited and published in
2004 it is revealed that roads works are no more dangerous than open motorways
and that speed cameras have no effect on accident rates.

Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign
(www.safespeed.org.uk) said: "When this sort of information is available, why
are camera partnerships allowed to continue to fleece motorists with no safety
benefit?"

"It is outrageous that partnerships continue to operate speed cameras in
motorway roadworks claiming that they are required to 'protect the workforce',
when science clearly tells us that motorway road works are not specially
dangerous and speed cameras don't help at all."

"The greedy camera partnerships frequently lie to us about the 'benefits' of
speed cameras. False information in road safety costs lives because it causes
life saving resources are misallocated. The partnerships must be disbanded
because they are working against the long term interests of road safety. They
are 21st century snake oil salesmen."

"Why on earth does it take the Freedom of Information act to uncover important
information like this?"

TRL Report says: "The study showed that there was no significant difference in
the rate of PIAs (Personal Injury Accidents) when road works were present on
the motorway."

TRL Report says: "No significant difference was observed in the PIA rate for
sites with and without speed cameras."

<ends>


Notes for editors:
==================

DfT Page regarding Safe Speed's Freedom of Information Request:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_foi/documents/divisionhomepage/039530.\
hcsp

TRL Report summary containing quotes above:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_foi/documents/page/dft_foi_039535.pdf


About Safe Speed
================

The Safe Speed road safety campaign is primarily the work of engineer-turned
road safety analyst Paul Smith.

Since setting up Safe Speed in 2001, Paul Smith, 50, an advanced motorist and
road safety enthusiast, and a professional engineer of 25 years UK experience,
has carried out over 10,000 hours working on the campaign with well over 5,000
of those hours researching the overall effects of speed camera policy on UK
road safety. In addition to those 10,000 hours, Paul has funded to campaign to
the tune of £10,000.

We believe that this is more work in more detail than anything carried out by
any other organisation. Paul's surprising conclusion is that overall speed
cameras make our roads more dangerous. Paul has identified and reported a
number of major flaws and false assumptions in the claims made for speed
cameras, and the whole "speed kills" system of road safety.

The inescapable conclusion is that we should urgently return to the excellent
road safety policies that gave us in the UK the safest roads in the World in
the first place. Far from saving lives, speed cameras are a dangerous
distraction.

Safe Speed does not campaign against speed limits or appropriate enforcement
of motoring laws, but argues vigorously that automated speed enforcement is
neither safe nor appropriate.

Safe Speed is very slimly funded by voluntary contributions to the web site. We
are urgently seeking improved funding.

The Safe Speed web site contains more than 350,000 words of road safety
analysis and information. We are seeking publishers for 'the book of the web
site'.

It has turned out to be quite an amazing story and there are opportunities for
journalists and broadcasters to explore how all this came about, what it
means, and where road safety has gone so badly wrong.


Contact Safe Speed:
=================

description: Safe Speed road safety campaign
web: http://www.safespeed.org.uk
email: psmith@...
telephone: 01862 832000 24 hours.
ISDN Audio: 01862 832674 (apt-x100 only)
mobile: 07799 045553
note: the mobile does not work well at our office. Always try land line first.

Location: North Scotland

We are always available for further comment on your road safety story.

To be added to our PR distribution list send an email to
psmith@... or visit our press pages at:
http://www.safespeed.org.uk/prindex.html

Recent press releases (since November 2004) are automatically and immediately
uploaded to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SafeSpeedPR

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NEW! ISDN Audio: 01862 832674
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