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ROAD SAFETY NEWS - WEEK COMMENCING 19 JANUARY 2004

30mph speed limits – legality challenged
The majority of 30mph speed limits on rural roads could be illegal after what is being described as a landmark ruling in Worcestershire (Surveyor, 8 January).

The CPS is planning to appeal to the High Court after Redditch Magistrates found a driver not guilty of exceeding a 30mph speed limit because the road did not legally exist.

The ABD brought the case claiming that several councils creating 30mph zones had used a section of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 only intended for roads with streetlighting.

Suffolk County Council, however, was told by the DfT last year that its use of section 82, supported by repeater signs, was legally sound but not good practice.
Speeding dodgers risk lives
Some drivers believe they have found a new way to avoid speed traps - by driving on the wrong side of the road (Huddersfield Daily Examiner).

Motorists have been filmed by speed cameras playing a deadly new game of veering over on the opposite side of the road - sometimes into the path of oncoming cars - in a desperate bid to avoid speed cameras. Officers at the West Yorkshire Casualty Reduction Partnership, which monitors speed cameras, said they had seen a dramatic rise in dodging drivers.

Partnership spokesman Philip Gwynne said concern was rising as the cameras had already filmed a number of heart-stopping near misses. "Cars are being driven down the wrong side of the road in the face of oncoming traffic," he said. "Motorists pulling out of side roads will not be looking out for vehicles coming towards them from the wrong direction, neither will pedestrians crossing the road."

He said the potentially deadly tactic did nothing to help get drivers off the hook. Speeding motorists would be caught no matter which side of the road they were on. "It doesn't matter if a car is on the white lines or is on the other side of the road at the side of them. Their position and speed can still be calculated."

More @ http://ichuddersfield.icnetwork.co.uk
In defence of speed cameras
The following piece appeared in New Statesman last week and can be viewed at http://www.newstatesman.co.uk/nsleader.htm.

"What a strange attitude we have to lawbreakers in cars. Attempts to enforce speed limits are denounced as interference with ancient English liberties.

"Motorists who drive too fast are excused on the grounds that they are ‘otherwise law-abiding’, a description that may as easily be applied to wife-beaters or child molesters. Upright citizens boast of victories over breathalysers, speed cameras and parking tickets. The Sun launches a ‘stop the highway robbery’ campaign against the cameras while a lunatic fringe attacks them with hammers and airguns, and threatens explosives. Traffic wardens – who it is proposed should have powers to book drivers for disobeying ‘no right turn’ signs or loitering in yellow box junctions - are derided even by that paragon of metropolitan chatterers, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown. Ministers tremble at the tabloids' wrath and agree to consider proposals to remove cameras where they do not ‘protect’ the public. This is an incoherent thought even by today's standards. If a legal limit on speed exists, it is worth enforcing.

"Our love affair with the motor car blinds us to logic and common sense. We strain every sinew to protect children from paedophile murderers. Yet, the number of child pedestrians killed on the roads annually is ten times greater than the number killed by perverted strangers. It is also higher than in France or Germany. The yearly toll of death on the roads exceeds that exacted by Osama Bin Laden's madmen in New York in 2001, and is vastly higher than the number of Britons killed in all recent terrorist attacks. On any sane risk assessment, speed cameras on roads - which have been shown to cut deaths and serious injuries by 35 per cent - are more necessary than armed marshals on aeroplanes.

"There is no argument whatever for treating errant motorists more leniently than any other class of offender, or for making less determined efforts to catch them. Even an ignored ‘no right turn’ sign can cause death or injury to innocent people. An illegally parked car - which may itself lead to an accident - is simply theft of road space, an expensive and scarce commodity. Retailers stuff their stores with cameras to deter shoplifters who cause no physical harm to anybody. It is hardly possible to walk a hundred yards along a high street or a few feet across an airport lounge without surveillance. Why should it be different when we get into a motor vehicle? The police are said to hound lawbreaking motorists in preference to pursuing burglars. Why is this such a reprehensible order of priorities? Burglars cause loss and distress, but rarely kill or maim.

"The argument that exceeding the speed limit is acceptable when the road is deserted or the schools are on holiday is preposterous. Children are more, not less, likely to be wandering around in the holidays, and pedestrians may unwittingly put themselves at risk in the belief that the limit is being observed. In any case, a pedestrian hit by a vehicle travelling at 40mph will almost certainly be killed, while one hit at 20mph will almost certainly survive.

"Nor is it so scandalous that revenue from motoring fines swells police and Treasury coffers. Raising money from the taxation of socially undesirable behaviour - whether it be smoking, emitting greenhouse gases or parking at road junctions - is a perfectly sound principle. Indeed, the Tory proposal that motorists who exceed the limit by small margins should pay higher fines rather than suffer licence endorsements has - unusually - some merit.

"Cars seem to create a state of arrested adolescence in many users. Behind the wheel, middle-class, middle-aged men (and the worst drivers are nearly always men) become as reckless and heedless as teenagers. They resemble naughty schoolboys not only in their determination to flout authority, but also in their resentment when they are ‘picked on’.

"Yet a car is potentially a lethal weapon. The use of it is a privilege, not a right; the minority who forget that deserve to be hounded as mercilessly as any housebreaker or teenage vandal."
Warning letters sent to speeding drivers
North Wales Police has sent around 800 letters to motorists caught driving at one mile per hour under the 38mph prosecution threshold. A spokeswoman for the initiative, part of the Arrive Alive campaign, said the scheme had been so successful that it may be extended to people caught driving at 35 and 36mph.

The Arrive Alive spokeswoman said: "Our main aim is to educate people about the dangers of speeding and get them to reduce their speed. We want people to realise that they are breaking the speed limit even though they might not have been booked."

"We've been targeting people driving at 37mph, but in the future we may extend this to anyone driving over 35mph. So far we've had very positive feedback."

More @ http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk
Bikers’ needs considered
 Advice on addressing the road engineering needs of motorcycles, scooters and mopeds has been promised by the Institute of Highway Incorporated Engineers (IHIE).

The DfT has awarded a contract to the IHIE for a scoping study prior to preparing design guidelines for motorcycling. Welcoming the contract, Tony Sharp, IHIE council member and chair of the drafting group said: "There are more motorcycles and scooters on the road than ever before. If the Government’s target of reducing rider casualties is to be achieved we have to design the road environment to make motorcycling safer."
ROSCO announces ‘Safety Challenges’ workshop
 The Road Operators' Safety Council ((ROSCO) is presenting a workshop - Safety Challenges - for people with responsibility for road safety.

The workshop will take place on Wednesday 10 March at Volvo Truck & Bus Ltd, Warwick. Guest speakers will include Chris Moyes, Go-Ahead, Professor Peter Russell, Driver Education Research Foundation and Jan Kaye, Head of Training, Thomas International.

The workshop fee is £64 plus VAT for ROSCO company members and £96 plus VAT for others. For further information or to book contact Yvonne Brittan, ROSCO 395 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 2DJ. Tel 01865 775552. Email: rosco-oxford@supanet.com

DfT announces extra £20m for urban buses
 A total of £19.6m is to be awarded to 40 urban bus schemes, transport minister Tony McNulty announced last week. The money, from the Urban Bus Challenge Competition, will go to a wide range of bus schemes to help tackle urban deprivation and social exclusion across England.

The awards follow last month’s Local Transport Plan settlement, in which major bus schemes in Northampton, West Yorkshire, Manchester, Coventry, Milton Keynes, Cambridgeshire and Luton were approved.

"This year's award-winning schemes range from new or improved bus services to dial-a-ride initiatives," Tony McNulty said.

The inclusion of pilot 'Kickstart' schemes this year is a new addition to the competition. These are schemes that, with a certain amount of initial funding, have the potential to attract sufficient patronage to have a sustainable future - in many cases as commercial services. The bids are put forward in collaboration with local bus operators.

More @ www.dft.gov.uk
RoSPA announces details of MORR seminar
 Compared to other work environments, almost three times as many employees die or are seriously injured while driving on company business.

RoSPA's MORR - Focusing on Performance seminar will update those involved in fleet management or safety on the latest developments in this area. It will also offer advice on good practice and guidance on how to develop and implement effective road risk management systems.

The seminar will take place at Holiday Inn, A55 Chester West on Wednesday 18 February. The price per delegate is £149 plus VAT. For full programme information visit www.rospa.com/morr or call RoSPA event administration on 0121 248 2120.