Speed Cameras

How would you feel if your driving licence was taken away tomorrow? Or perhaps that your next motor insurance renewal was double the current premium? Everyday on UK roads there are new and increasingly sophisticated radar traps and speed cameras being activated designed to catch the speeding motorist.

Speed cameras is the common name given to safety cameras operated by local police forces as a means of enforcing speed limits on dangerous roads. Safety cameras are also used to enforce traffic signals, by photographing vehicles driving through red lights. Unlike other methods of road traffic law enforcement, speed cameras do not require offending motorists to be pulled over.

Each year (2006) in the UK there are over two million motorists who are caught by speed cameras. The ramifications, as touched upon above, not only entail a probable minimum £60.00 fine and 3 points on your driving licence but also the prospect of a substantial increase in car insurance premiums for the next 3 years.

Supporters of the traditional roadside speed camera (commonly referred to as a GATSO) argue that these devices contribute to traffic safety by providing visible 24/7 traffic law enforcement. On the other side of the fence many drivers believe they are used primarily as a revenue generating weapon with many motorists taking to installing dash mounted products warning them of impending speed cameras.

Advantages of Speed Cameras
The initial pilot speed camera scheme had a significant impact on road safety in the covered areas. In Northamptonshire in 2001, accidents fell at fixed camera sites by 50 per cent and the number of people killed and seriously injured by 67 per cent. Across the eight UK areas, prosecutions also had risen eighteen-fold.

With such compelling evidence Government decided to roll the scheme out nationally after just a year. The general permission for approved local safety camera partnerships to recover costs - known as the National Safety Camera Scheme - was included in the Vehicles (Crimes) Act 2001.

The Government and safety cameras' supporters insist that in reducing speeds at blackspot sites, cameras are having a positive impact, in view of the high rate at which accident mortality increases in relation to higher speeds.

The Road Safety Myth?
There is a vociferous lobby in the UK who argue that enforcement of Motoring Laws often has little or nothing to do with Road Safety. There are many more effective ways to improve road safety than prosecuting drivers who stray a few miles per hour over the limit on an open road.

Detectors
There are many different types of speed camera detector available on the market today. The earliest solution was the radar detector, imported originally from the USA. A Radar detector works on the simple principle that if the police radar gun is pushing out radar it can be detected and the driver warned. Laser jammers are specifically designed to disrupt (hand held) police lasers making them unable to take a registration plate reading.

The latest technology to be used within speed camera detectors is GPS or the global positioning system, it allows a detector unit to know its position within 10 meters which when combined with a map and database can form an effective warning system.

UK Speed Camera Locations
Visit the web site of SpeedCamerasUK (www.speedcamerasuk.com) and view their speed camera locations database, speed cameras include; DS2, Gatso, Truvelo, Mobile, Peek, SPECS, Speedcurb, Traffic Light and Watchman.

Speeding Insurance
It is now possible to protect yourself from potential immobility should you be disqualified from driving your car. This new speeding insurance product is designed to subsidise the cost of public transport, thus enabling disqualified drivers to remain mobile. This speeding insurance policy costs £50 a year and pays drivers up to £6,000 towards alternative transport arrangements if they lose their licence.

The policy will under no circumstance be made available to drivers convicted of driving recklessly or while driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs. It will be made available to those drivers who may have points on their licence and make a simple mistake which takes them to the 12 point limit, thus disqualifying them from driving.

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