Safer Roads » Statistics

Major international study into speed cameras published

Dan Campsall — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 18:55:53 +0000

An investigation by the Cochrane Collaboration, an international group of experts who specialise in public health issues, has shown that the use of speed cameras reduces speeds and crashes. Thirty five studies met the inclusion criteria for the report which principally considered results in developed world countries. Compared with controls, the relative reduction in average speed ranged from 1% to 15% and the reduction in proportion of vehicles speeding ranged from 14% to 65%. In the vicinity of camera sites, the pre/post reductions ranged from 8% to 49% for all crashes and 11% to 44% for fatal and serious injury crashes. Compared with controls, the relative improvement in pre/post injury crash proportions ranged from 8% to 50%.

Richard Owen, Operations Manager for the Thames Valley Safer Roads Partnership welcomed the findings;

“Our own results show that even taking into account the improving safety record on the roads, the number of crashes in the vicinity of speed cameras has reduced significantly. This report confirms what we have always known; cameras save lives. No serious, credible report has ever shown that cameras cause crashes and contrary to popular belief, most people accept their use on our roads.”

A full copy of the report can be download from the Cochrance Library here

The TVSRP report into camera site statistics over an 18 year period can be found here on our website

Report highlights changes in speed at Oxfordshire camera sites

Dan Campsall — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 14:30:33 +0000

Following a 40% (£559,886.81) in-year reduction in the specific road safety grant to Oxfordshire, the County Council took the decision to withdraw funding from the partnership and to stop the use of fixed and mobile speed cameras, plus red-light cameras on their road network. A total of 72 fixed cameras were ‘switched-off’ on the 1st August 2010 and the move was well-publicised in the local, national and even international press.
It was agreed that speed monitoring would continue to take place at a handful of sites after 1st August to determine the effect the switch-off had on offence rates. The monitoring consisted of an electronic counter attached to the radar units still operational within the camera housings, and set to the appropriate ‘threshold’. The threshold for 30mph limits has been 35mph for several years in Thames Valley, meaning an offence is classed as a speed of 35mph or greater. The devices do not record average speeds or the number of vehicles exceeding the posted speed limit. The threshold for 40mph roads is 46mph.
This report looks at the evidence retrieved from four sites (six ‘locations’) in Oxfordshire in the 32 days following the switch-off.

You can view the full report here

Safer roads after 10 years of Partnership working

Dan Campsall — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 09:19:54 +0000

10 years after the partnership was set-up to help reduce death and injury on the roads in Thames Valley, the latest casualty statistics show that we are indeed safer on the region’s roads.

The Department for Transport (DfT) will be releasing road casualty statistics for the whole of Great Britain today (24th July), and once again the results for the Thames Valley are the best that the Safer Roads Partnership has on record.

Over the last ten years road deaths have fallen by 53%, the total number of people hurt on the roads in Thames Valley is down by 31%, and the number of children injured down by 44%.

Speaking for the Safer Roads Partnership, Chairman Stephen Brown said:

“Over the last ten years we have seen enormous improvements in the safety of our road network and that is a great encouragement. However, if you are one of the 8,000 people injured on the region’s roads last year then this will come as little comfort, and we it owe to them to continue the hard work. We are committed to pressing ahead with our driver awareness programmes and excellent education schemes such as a Safe Drive Stay Alive.”

There have been some significant reductions in crashes resulting from dangerous driving behaviour too. Alcohol, drug and fatigue related crashes have all substantially reduced over the last ten years and serious collisions involving excessive speed are 58% lower than they were in 2000.

Looking at where the reductions have come from Richard Owen, Partnership Operations Manager said:

“There are many things that are contributing to safer roads, things like better road and vehicle design should certainly not be overlooked, but we have seen a cultural shift in the speeds that people drive at particularly in our towns and cities. The role of enforcement and education has undoubtedly changed the way we use the roads and made them safer for local communities.”

Earlier this month it was revealed that as the partnership continue to promote education more drivers are now choosing to attend a driver training course rather than receive penalty points.

Speaking for Thames Valley Police, Claire Benson, Head of Specialist Units commented

“Driver education has become a really important follow-up to enforcement. Our aim is to educate rather than alienate drivers and therefore allow them to have a better understanding of why and how their direct actions behind the wheel can affect the safety of themselves and others.“

Lifting the Lid on Safety Camera Stats

Dan Campsall — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 14:46:48 +0000

Do cameras work as a long term road safety solution?

For a number of years now, there have been many questions asked about whether safety cameras really do work to reduce deaths and injuries on our roads. Some have contended they are a quick fix, or an easy solution selected only to raise revenues.

In a ground breaking study, the Thames Valley Safer Roads Partnership have looked at collision records dating back to the early 1990s and reviewed the performance of camera sites against the rest of the road network over this time.

The results are significant; the report shows that the cameras not only offer the short-term improvement that have been criticised as statistical anomalies, the long-term trend shows that cameras have improved collision rates and continue to keep them low over time.

The report comes at a time when fresh appeals are being made to curb the number of cameras and provide evidence for the effectiveness, this report underlines that cameras still have a role to play as part of a wider package of road safety measures.

Speaking for the Thames Valley Safer Roads Partnership, Richard Owen, Operations Manager commented: “This report is the result of a great deal of work to improve and interpret the historic data that we hold, it shows that safety cameras do have a significant role to play as part of a coherent road safety strategy. We cannot police the entire road network with cameras, nor would we ever want to, but working alongside our commitment to driver education, engaging with the public and improvements to road engineering, they do reduce casualties.”

To download a copy of the report, please click here: Camera Site Report 09 (227Kb PDF file)