Traffic cameras reduce driving speed, accidents, deaths and injuries

UK Road deaths (Thousands) - National Statistical Office. (Footnote 4)

Speed Cameras are hated - GATSOS the traffuc camera manufacturers announce they will shortly be introducing digital cameras rather than "wet film" thus prolonging their activity to 24/7. Yet there is solid believable evidence that they are effective in reducing speeding and accidents and consequently fatal or serious collisions. There is much irrational, nonsenical resistance to their use which is not supported by the results.

For example Doncaster Council Rotherham, Sheffield and Barnsley Councils, The Highways Agency, South Yorkshire Magistrates Court Committee and South Yorkshire Police all belong to the South Yorkshire Safety Camera Partnership. They have produced the following information today.

The primary objective of the partnership is, (reasonably enough) to reduce the number of people injured or killed on the area's roads by the deployment of cameras. These are placed to conform to strict Government criteria at sites with a history of speed related fatal or serious collisions. As they have secured 'Netting Off' status, the income raised by the partnership from safety camera enforcement is recovered (netted off) to support the cost of installing and running the cameras. (Footnote 1)

Within the region covered there are ;
1 ) 6759 collisions per annum in South Yorkshire
2 ) 724 (killed and seriously injured (KSI) casualties per annum

The Aim of the Camera Partnership is to reduce collisionsand so reduce and/or avoid:

* Injury or death
* Impact on family / friends
* Hospital and Ambulance resource usage
* Insurance premiums rise
* Economic impacts of lost working time
* Collision delay to other road users

Collisions have reduced by 32-37% at existing camera sites in South Yorkshire. The Transport Research Laboratory claim that every 1 mph reduction in speed = 5% fewer accidents. (Footnote 3) Overall, Netting off pilot schemes achieved a 5% reduction in total collisions in their areas - they have also reduced excess speeding dramatically and reduced speed overall. (Footnote 2)

Extrapolated to the whole of Yorkshire this initiative should:

1 ) Save 340 collisions per annum
2 ) Prevent 55 KSI's per annum
3 ) At £62,000 per collision ( source DTLR) £21.0m in the cost of collisions in South Yorkshire. (340 X £62,000)

eg : @ £62K per collision total cost of collisions = £420 Mn. so a 5% saving is £21.0Mn.

It might be worth pointing out that 3,200 people died on UK roads in 2005, and between 25% and 30% of those accidents involved people driving for work. This means there are four times more work-related road fatalities than on non-vehicle related work fatalities in the UK.

Footnote 1.

In December 1998, the then DETR, Home Office and Treasury agreed that fine income from speed and red light cameras could be used to fund additional camera enforcement - a recommendation from the original 1996 report. This process was termed hypothecation, although 'netting off' is a more technically correct term. No organisation is allowed to make a 'profit' out of the scheme. This has changed and all fines revert to the Treasury - income currently is about £60Mn per annum. The Partnerships will receive grants for installing and running cameras - a change instituted to remove the idea that the Police authorities were "making a profit".

Footnote 2

DTLR Cost Recovery System for Traffic Safety Cameras
First Year Report October 2001

Data was collected at over 100 of the camera sites and involving over 800 separate speed surveys throughout the year.

These demonstrate that cameras do reduce speed and a consequential reduction in casualties should be expected.

On average the percentage of drivers exceeding the speed limit at pilot camera sites reduced from 55% to 16%.

Excess speed (more than 15mph over the speed limit) at camera sites has virtually been eliminated. The percentage of drivers exceeding the speed limit by more than 15mph at camera sites has reduced from an average of 5% before enforcement to just 1% afterwards.

The increase in enforcement is reducing the average speed at these sites. Average speed at the camera sites has reduced on average by 5.6mph. We would, therefore, expect to see a reduction in collisions in these high-risk sites of around 30% (based on 1mph reduction in speed = 5% reduction in

Footnote 3.

Finch D J, Kompfner P, Lockwood C R and Maycock G (1994). Speed, Speed Limits and Accidents. Project Report 58, Transport Research Laboratory (TRL), Crowthorne. (Note this calculation is 23yrs old but was validated by further research.
Taylor MC, Lynam DA and Baruya A (2000). The effects of drivers' speed on the frequency of road accidents. Report 421, TRL, Crowthorne.

Footnote 4.

In 2005, 671 pedestrians were killed in road accidents in Great Britain, this was 21 per cent of all deaths from road accidents, the lowest total for over 40 years. (Source National Statistics Office)

The total number of deaths in road accidents fell slightly by 1 per cent to 3,201 in 2005 from 3,221 in 2004. However, the number of fatalities has remained fairly constant over the last ten years.

Just over half (52 %) of people killed in road accidents in 2005 were car users. Pedal cyclists and two-wheeled motor vehicle users represented 5 and 18 % of those killed respectively. Occupants of buses, coaches, goods and other vehicles accounted for the remaining 4 % of road deaths.

The total number of road casualties of all severities fell by 3 % between 2004 and 2005 to approximately 271,000 in Great Britain. This compares with an annual average of approximately 320,000 for the years 1994-98 and 324,000 in 1984.

The decline in the casualty rate, which takes into account the volume of traffic on the roads, has been much steeper. In 1964 there were 240 casualties per 100 million vehicle kilometres. By 2005 this had declined to 55 per 100 million vehicle kilometres.

The United Kingdom has a very good record for road safety compared with most other EU countries. In 2004 it had one of the lowest road death rates in the EU, at 5.6 per 100,000 population. The UK rate was also lower than the rates for other industrialised nations such as Japan (6.96 per 100,000 population), and substantially lower than that of Australia (8.15) and the United States (14.66).