SAFE SPEED CALLS FOR A FULL AUDIT OF SPEED CAMERAS
28 July 2004 - Safe Speed

The resignation of the Norfolk''s speed camera boss calls into question the management of all our speed cameras says Safe Speed.

It has been announced today that Barry Parnell, manager of the Norfolk Casualty Reduction Partnership (NCRP), resigned after seeing a report intended to ensure that Norfolk''s speed cameras met the rules.

Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign said: ''We must suspend all speed camera operations pending a complete audit of speed cameras, the way they are operated and their effects on road safety. We know that something was bad enough in Norfolk to force a resignation, We know that road deaths have just gone up. We know that there are peculiarities in the statistics used to justify speed cameras and we know that the rules for speed camera placement are fatally flawed.''

Paul continued: ''If the rules were flouted in Norfolk, and it took an investigation by the Chief Constable to find out, how can we have any confidence that other areas have their cameras properly administer and installed according to the guidelines? Vital public confidence in the system has been well and truly lost.''

In a recent report for the BBC Radio ''Today Programme'', Professor Emeritus Mervyn Stone said (regarding the partnership based speed camera programme): ''The emphasis on political acceptability has led the program down a cul de sac in which essential public trust has been lost. The mistakes already made should be openly recognised, and the program should be subjected to a root and branch rethink.''

It should came as no surprise that Safe Speed says: ''Let''s make speed cameras as unacceptable as drink driving.''

www.safespeed.org.uk

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