Police tsar focuses on boosting speed cameras

Julia Mulligan, North Yorkshire’s police and crime commissioner, will this week discuss expanding a pilot project and make mobile speed cameras a permanent feature on the county’s roads.

A report to be considered by the crime commissioner on Wednesday says its current use of one single van is being expanded to three – a move which it is hoped will improve road safety and cut casualties further.

The report says: “The early success of the pilot safety camera van operation in relation to casualty reduction figures, and the improved quality of life in local communities, support the continued use of mobile enforcement technology.

“The effectiveness of speed cameras has been well documented and those effects have been evident across the force area for the last 12 months.

“There has been a distinct and measurable impact on vehicle speeds which can be attributed to a shift change in driver behaviour.”

“There was a real need to reduce the toll of motorcycle deaths on the county’s roads,” the report prepared for the crime commissioner adds.

The crime commissioner will also hear how speeding fines will be used to develop schemes to help improve road safety.

The county’s 5,000-mile road network is a huge draw for bikers from across the country.

However, North Yorkshire Police had to deal with 182 deaths on the county’s roads between 2001 and 2011.

The number of motorcyclists who have lost their lives on the county’s roads has fallen since the introduction of a mobile speed camera last summer – but police have warned rogue bikers are still putting lives at risk.

In 2010, 20 bikers, including two pillion passengers, died in North Yorkshire.

More than three quarters of these deaths were down to rider error, although not necessarily speed related.

In 2011, eleven motorcyclists lost their lives and so far this year, six have died on North Yorkshire’s roads. Police say, however, that despite the decrease in deaths, people are continuing to flout the law.

Earlier this month, motorcyclist Gary Dobson, 40, from Halifax, was banned for driving for six months after he was captured by police riding at 144mph in a 70mph zone on the A63 near South Milford on October 7.

The force has recorded a 50 per cent fall in speed-related fatal crashes, from 14 in 2010 to seven in 2011.

The mobile safety camera pilot was introduced because of the high death toll owing to excessive or inappropriate speeds, particularly the number of bikers who died.

During the pilot, fatal and serious injury crashes have fallen by 46 per cent at identified sites.

Fatal and serious injury collisions where speed is a contributory factor have reduced by 59 per cent.

The force says cameras have led to a reduction in casualties not only at camera sites but across the wider road network and the report to be considered by the crime commissioner says 75 per cent of survey questionnaires reported public acceptance of the use of speed cameras.

The report says between July 2011 and June 2012, the total number caught speeding was 16,055.

Of those, 250 were summonsed to appear before the courts. The other cases were dealt with by officers in a variety of ways including fines and over 13,000 bikers were referred for speed awareness courses.

Earlier Insp Dave Brown, of North Yorkshire Police’s Strategic Roads Policing Group, told the Yorkshire Post: “Bikers’ deaths have fallen but we are not complacent. Road safety is an absolute priority for North Yorkshire Police and we will continue to target those people who flout the law and put other people’s lives in danger.”