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MPs want more speed cameras
Date: 31 October 2006 | Author: John Mahoney
MPs will lobby the Government for further funds to be made available for more speed cameras on the nation's road network.
Published today, the MP's investigation, dubbed Roads Policing and Technology: Getting the Right Balance, damned current rules requiring death or serious injury before installation as "irresponsible" and "a disgrace".
Chairman Gwyneth Dunwoody said the committee harnessed evidence that showed 42% fewer people were killed or seriously injured in crashes at sites that had fixed speed cameras.
"The relationship between speed and collisions is so well proven that the casualty criteria requirement is unnecessary and even irresponsible.
"There is no need to wait for somebody to die in order to take action intended to slow vehicles," said Dunwoody.
The report also highlighted the committee's opinion that speed cameras are "effective, good value for money, and well accepted by the public".
The news is not expected to be well received by senior traffic police officers who, according to a leaked internal Whitehall document to the Mail on Sunday, are worried about the rising numbers of drivers criminalised by speeding each year and the impact this will have on public relations.
Police offers are also concerned that yet more cameras will be seen by the public as a 'money making' scheme following the Government ordering local authorities to review and lower speed limits where necessary.
Currently, two million drivers are caught by speed cameras each year.
