Speed camera cuts will cost us money (From Oxford Mail)

Speed camera cuts will cost us money

10:00am Wednesday 28th July 2010 in

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The debate over Speed cameras in Oxfordshire is being hijacked by ill-informed people who want to turn it into a war on drivers.

It is not, and here are some easily available facts to prove it: Speed cameras and driver education in the Thames Valley has helped cut deaths and serious injuries on our roads by 43 per cent.

Road deaths have fallen from 154 in 2000 to 89 (42 per cent) in 2008, while serious injuries fell from 1,213 to 767 (37 per cent) over the same period.

More than 40,000 motorists in the Thames Valley attended driver education courses last year instead of receiving fines and penalty points after breaking the law.

Driver education targets dangerous driving behaviour, with the result that women attendees were nearly 10 times less likely to break the 30mph speed limit, while male attendees said they were five times more likely to intend to stay within the limit.

A four-year study of UK speed cameras by the Government identified a £258m saving from avoided injuries compared to enforcement costs of £96m, so a net saving of £162m.

Department of Transport figures show that each fatal accident costs on average £1.9m, while each accident resulting in a serious injury costs on average £218,100.

Compare the £1.9m cost of a single road death with the £600,000 which Oxfordshire County Council wants to axe from the Thames Valley road safety programme and tell me it makes financial sense, let alone moral sense.

Deaths on Britain’s roads were at a record low last year thanks to initiatives like this, yet the World Health Organisation still lists road deaths as the top killer of young males aged 17 to 24, so there is still much to be done.

If the council axes the funding, all this will be undone and there will be more deaths and serious injuries on Oxfordshire’s roads – that is a fact.

Dani Rabinowitz, Somerville College, University of Oxford, Woodstock Road, Oxford