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SAFETY CAMERAS SAVE US MILLIONS (28/10/2005)
Safety cameras in Northumbria have saved local health and emergency services millions of pounds over the past year.
With three fewer deaths, 18 fewer serious injuries and 27 fewer minor injuries at camera sites, the total saving has been £8,094,120 - nearly double the amount received in fines.
It is impossible to estimate the emotional cost to friends and families of those killed and seriously injured on the roads. However, the average financial cost of these collisions has recently been estimated at £1,492, 910 for a fatal collision, £174,530 for a serious injury collision and £17,550 for a slight collision.*
Speeding fines during the year amounted to £4,298,820, with £2,584,896 being reinvested into partnership running costs, including staffing, public relations, research, cameras, accommodation, vehicles and IT, and the remainder retained by the Treasury (£1,713,924).
The number of people killed or injured at camera sites in the region has fallen by 22% in the last two years, compared with two years before the partnership was formed.**
The figures are revealed in Northumbria Safety Camera Partnership’s second annual report, which has just been published. It includes an update on the Safe Speed for Life campaign, collision data and information about safety cameras.
Project manager Ray King said: “The annual report is an ideal opportunity for local people to find out more about what we do. It’s important that everyone is given the opportunity to make their own minds up about safety cameras and have access to all the facts and figures.
“There will always be those who want to focus on the money issue, at the expense of everything else, which tends to detract from the fact that, used alongside other road safety measures, safety cameras play an important part in reducing the number of people killed and seriously injured on our roads, as these figures show.
“We would rather not be taking anyone’s money to achieve an improvement in casualty reduction but unfortunately there are some drivers who feel it’s acceptable to break the limit, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
“Most drivers are law-abiding, but there is a minority who will only slow down because they want to avoid a fine and points on their licences. Speed limits are in place for a reason, and having no deterrent to break them would be like offering a licence to speed for certain individuals."
The introduction of forward facing speed cameras at seven sites throughout the region has had a marked effect on speeds at these collision hotspots; in some cases this represented a drop of over 14 miles an hour.
Speeds are also consistently down at mobile sites, with far fewer offences being detected per hour of camera operation.
The report includes sections on how safety cameras work; a review of the year; advice on avoiding a ticket; question and answers; public concern sites; collision data; a full camera list and financial information.
There was a slight reduction in the number of tickets issued, from 78,802 (2003/4) to 78,578 (2004/04), despite an increase in camera numbers, sites and mobile van deployments.
In the whole of Northumbria there were eight fewer people killed, 17 fewer seriously injured and 399 fewer minor casualties last year (April-March), which is in line with falling casualty numbers at camera sites.
*Hansard written answers 12 September 2005
**Collision data for the two years 1999-2001 (the first two years of data recorded for the partnership at all existing camera sites) has been compared with the most recent two years of operation (2003-2004) in order to begin to analyse its effectiveness. |
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