Official figures obtained by a newspaper and reported by ITV reveal that a Gatso speed camera installed at road works on the M62 has been responsible for over £1 million in fines. This follows Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) report, TRL595 (see link below), which indicates that such cameras are likely to increase injury crashes by 55 per cent.
Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign said: "Speed cameras on motorway roadworks actually increase danger. A report by TRL shows clearly that roadworks with cameras had much higher crash rates. The Highways Agency is ignoring the science that they commissioned and apparently prefers blind and unjustified faith in speed cameras.
"Speed cameras increase danger because of the way that they alter driver behaviour. They cause traffic to bunch and some drivers to panic brake. They also cause excessive concentration on the speedo at the expense of concentration on the road ahead.
"But speed cameras also undermine our road safety system in subtler ways. They damage the police public relationship, and imply a series of false safety messages. Drivers are learning to trust the speedometer as a barometer of safety when in fact of course it is no such thing.
"We won't get road safety back on track until the government admits its dangerous mistake and scraps speed cameras."
Links
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