Gatsos increase crashes

An unpublished report by the Transport Research Laboratory reveals that speed cameras not only fail to cut accidents, they actually increase them.

The report hasn’t been officially released but anti-camera campaign group Safe Speed has obtained a synopsis that reveals the yellow boxes have had a negative effect on road safety.

According to the campaign group the report states that speed cameras placed in road-works increase accidents resulting in injury by up to 55 per cent while cameras on open motorways increase accidents by 31 per cent.

Even cameras that work out your average speed over a distance, which the Government says avoid the problems of sudden braking for Gatsos, increase the risk of injury in an accident by almost 7 per cent.

Paul Smith, founder of Safe Speed, said: “It is outrageous that this sort of information has been hidden from the public. We have all seen strange driver behaviour where fixed speed cameras operate. This report highlights the dangers. We’re not surprised to see this information – we have know for years that speed cameras were the wrong road safety strategy, and it’s a huge relief to see the truth coming out so clearly.”

MCN has long campaigned for a reduction in the use of speed cameras and a return to police patrols. The report backs up our argument. It points out that while cameras increase accident rates, the use of police patrols do reduce the risk of accidents by as much as 27 per cent.

The report was commissioned by the Highways Agency in 2004 but has only just been uncovered by Safe Speed using the freedom of information act.

Read the Safe Speed report here

Have you discovered MCN Auctions yet? Click here