Camera Partnership launches interactive website

The West Midlands Casualty Reduction Partnership (WMCRP) has gone live with a new website aimed at increasing awareness of the dangers of the road. The site, www.wmsafetycameras.co.uk, went live on 20 June and is a big step for the Partnership, as it is its first foray into multimedia technology.

"We have developed this website as part of our strategy towards increasing public awareness of the dangers of driving at inappropriate speeds," said Adam Warwick, the Partnership’s communications officer. "If you think of all those questions and quibbles people have regarding safety cameras - but didn't know who to ask - the answers are now just a mouse click away."

The website takes visitors through the camera site selection process, explaining that it is not just a case of identifying roads where drivers speed - but rather, the process is driven by the number of casualties on the road. The site also provides details of what happens when a driver gets ‘flashed’ by a camera, as well as answering a multitude of questions about speeding.

In addition, the website takes the visitor inside the Partnership and explains how and why it was formed, the agencies that are involved, its aims, and just how effective safety cameras are at reducing road casualties.

"But that's not all," Adam Warwick adds. "We have also developed a reaction time test, which shows you how far you would travel before you begin to stop. It's frightening to think that, even if you react within half a second, at 50mph you will still travel 11 metres before you begin to brake."

To dispel the myth that camera locations are hidden, the website identifies the location of every safety camera in the West Midlands region. But Adam Warwick stresses this is not so that people can avoid stretches of road where cameras are operating. "Every camera is there because that stretch of road has seen a significant number of people killed or seriously injured as a result of inappropriate speed or poor driver behaviour," he says.

"It's a sad fact that we still see 1200 deaths or serious injuries each year on West Midlands’ roads and that these can be avoided if we all show more awareness as to the dangers of the road. The cameras should act as a reminder that, along that road, people have been killed or seriously injured as a result of inappropriate speed."