'Safety' Camera - my A*$e!
Discussion
POLICE have been slammed for parking one of their specialist camera vans on a blind bend — forcing traffic onto the wrong side of the road.
www.burtonmail.co.uk/detail.asp?cat=General%20News&id=5083627
The police van, equipped with cameras to photograph speeding motorists, was parked on a blind bend in Park Road, Newhall, 200 yards from the Garden King garden centre.
It was parked up on the boundary of 30mph and 40mph limits on a road linking the A444 and Newhall, at 2pm on Friday.
One irate motorist, who asked to remain anonymous, said he was 'flabbergasted' to see where the van was parked. He said: "It was disgraceful. Having to go round the van to get back to my side of the road was dangerous."
A road safety watchdog was also scathing about the piece of dangerous surveillance undertaken by the police — suggesting that the whole exercise was about money and not about road safety.
An RAC spokesman said: "Seventy two per cent of drivers tell the RAC that speed cameras are about raising revenue, not road safety.
"When you have examples of police parking dangerously in order to catch people who may in fact only be speeding slightly, if at all, it does nothing to encourage drivers to believe that it is at all about their own safety."
Rebecca Hampson, Derbyshire Safety Camera Partnership’s marketing manager, apologised for the dangerous incident. She said: "The B5353 Main Street/Park Road, Newhall is an approved safety camera site and has been risk assessed to ensure that it is safe and convenient for a mobile safety camera vehicle to operate there.
"However, we accept that on this occasion the police officer in charge of the vehicle did not park in the correct place and the van should have been on the opposite side of the road. We accept the safety camera van was parked inappropriately and we apologise for any inconvenience caused to passing motorists. The officer has received suitable advice from his line manager."
www.burtonmail.co.uk/detail.asp?cat=General%20News&id=5083627
The police van, equipped with cameras to photograph speeding motorists, was parked on a blind bend in Park Road, Newhall, 200 yards from the Garden King garden centre.
It was parked up on the boundary of 30mph and 40mph limits on a road linking the A444 and Newhall, at 2pm on Friday.
One irate motorist, who asked to remain anonymous, said he was 'flabbergasted' to see where the van was parked. He said: "It was disgraceful. Having to go round the van to get back to my side of the road was dangerous."
A road safety watchdog was also scathing about the piece of dangerous surveillance undertaken by the police — suggesting that the whole exercise was about money and not about road safety.
An RAC spokesman said: "Seventy two per cent of drivers tell the RAC that speed cameras are about raising revenue, not road safety.
"When you have examples of police parking dangerously in order to catch people who may in fact only be speeding slightly, if at all, it does nothing to encourage drivers to believe that it is at all about their own safety."
Rebecca Hampson, Derbyshire Safety Camera Partnership’s marketing manager, apologised for the dangerous incident. She said: "The B5353 Main Street/Park Road, Newhall is an approved safety camera site and has been risk assessed to ensure that it is safe and convenient for a mobile safety camera vehicle to operate there.
"However, we accept that on this occasion the police officer in charge of the vehicle did not park in the correct place and the van should have been on the opposite side of the road. We accept the safety camera van was parked inappropriately and we apologise for any inconvenience caused to passing motorists. The officer has received suitable advice from his line manager."
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