Road Deaths up in Camera King's Patch

Daily Mail, Friday 1 st July 2005
By Ray Massey, Transport Editor

Road deaths in the ‘speed camera capital' of Britain have gone up despite an all-time low across the country.

North Wales – where chief constable Richard Brunstrom is a hardline supporter of the cameras – has seen an 18 per cent rise in fatalities.

Deaths there went up for the second year running, rising by nearly a third over two years as cameras have increased.

There were 3221 deaths on the roads across Britain last year – down 8 per cent on 2003 and the lowest since records began, according to Department of Transport figures. The numbers seriously injured also dropped by 8 per cent to 13,130, with casualties overall down 3 per cent to 280,840.

But in Mr Brunstrom's North Wales patch, the road toll rose by 18.3 per cent – from 49 in 2003 to 58 last year.

In 2002 44 lives were lost on the roads, while 49 died in 2003 – an increase of 11 per cent.

Overall, that is a 32 per cent increase in fatalities over two years.

Motoring experts believe the speed cameras may simply have shunted the accidents further down the road.

Motorists who slow down when they see the cameras then tend to accelerate away, increasing the chances of a crash further on.

Paul Smith, of road safety campaign group Safe Speed, said the North Wales figures were ‘shameful.' “I believe it is a causal effect between the use of cameras and the rise in deaths,” he said. “Cameras are damaging road safety, and Richard Brunstrom is the villain of the piece.”

As head of road policing for the Association of Chief Police Officers, Mr Brunstrom is the driving force behind 6000 speed cameras across the country.

Mark McArthur-Christie of the Association of British Drivers said: “North Wales is the speed camera capital of Britain – yet road fatalities there are up. The cameras don't stop accidents – they just shunt them further down the road to another spot.”

North Wales Chief Superintendent Gerint Anwyl insisted there had been ‘significant success' in the area with camera sites increased from 28 in 2001 to 58 in 2003 and 61 last year.

At these sites, fatalities were down by eight per cent and serious injuries by 20 per cent, he said.

He insisted deaths across North Wales were down by 36 per cent in the last six months.

Cleveland, another area with high numbers of speed cameras, also saw deaths rise 20 per cent – from 25 to 30. Avon and Somerset saw deaths rise 6.4 per cent from 78 to 83. Wiltshire, where cameras are being installed on the M4, saw a 22.5 per cent rise in deaths from 49 to 60.

In contrast, road deaths in areas which do not have such a concentration of speed cameras were down. In Durham there was a 24 per cent decrease and in North Yorkshire reported a nine per cent drop.