Speed cameras in dock

Speed cameras days could be numbered if the European Court of Human Rights rules in favour of British campaigners.

The court has agreed to hear eight cases from UK drivers who say they should be allowed the right to remain silent when asked to name who was at the wheel when a Gatso flashes.

The applicants claim section 172 of the 1988 Road Traffic Act breaches the right to silence which is implicit in Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights. It may not be sexy, but it could be effective.

The Safe Speed campaign claims: “The great majority of speed camera photographs do not identify drivers and so Section 172 of the 1988 Act is used to extract confessions by threatening “similar” (but in practice more severe) penalties for failure to do so.

“Several million fixed and other penalties, and the Safety Camera Partnerships, rely on these forced confessions,” added a spokesman.

One of the applicants, Idris Francis, said: “The past decade of increasing use of speed cameras has been uniquely dreadful in terms of road fatality trends, while the data presented by the autorities, far from being “robust” as they claim, is seriously flawed… and increasingly dishonest.”

More info (external sites): www.righttosilence.org.uk, www.safespeed.org.uk

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