Speeding motorists in West Yorkshire are being warned
Speeding motorists in West Yorkshire are being warned! They should expect to be caught, as changes are made to how safety cameras are used across the county.
Last year, 65 people died and over 5,000 people were injured in collisions on the roads of West Yorkshire. Most of these collisions were entirely preventable. Excessive or inappropriate speed is one of the most common factors in fatal and serious injury collisions.
Drivers and motorcyclists are being warned to ‘expect the unexpected’
As changes are made by the Safety Camera Partnership to the way safety cameras are deployed in the county. One change is that there won’t necessarily be signs anymore warning that you are approaching a speed camera.
The two main changes are:
- Cameras at sites of concern
Under the new arrangements, safety cameras will continue to be deployed to evidenced ‘high-risk’ sites with a history of fatal or serious injury collisions. They may also be utilised at community concern sites where there is clear evidence of emerging risk due to excessive speed. This represents a more proactive approach, trying to address issues with excessive speed on a road before a fatality or serious injury occurs.
Safety cameras may be deployed during periods of roadworks to protect the workforce and other road users. In some instances, they may be deployed following the opening of a new road where no speed or collision data currently exists.
- Signage warning of upcoming safety cameras
Currently, there is signage to indicate when you are approaching a safety camera or enforcement van. Under the new strategy, some sites of concern may be enforced without signage being present with the aim to encourage safe speeds across the network and not simply in the vicinity of established enforcement locations.
As part of the launch of these new changes, a video has been filmed with Ian Greenwood, whose 12-year-old daughter Alice died because of a speeding driver.
Ian Greenwood commented:
“People say to me, road crashes are inevitable and there’s nothing we can do to stop them. I tell them they are wrong, and this is a great example of what can be done.
“Most people are law abiding, but my message is to those who take an unnecessary risk and don’t think about the consequences. The result of the speeding driver was a dead 12-year-old with a broken neck, and he also managed to kill himself and his passenger. It was all totally avoidable.
“If you disagree with speed cameras, my message is simple, drive safely and you don’t need to worry. If the driver who caused Alice’s death had done so, she would still be with us.”
Paul Jeffrey, West Yorkshire Police lead for the West Yorkshire Safety Camera Partnership, said:
“Over recent years I believe there has been a change in public opinion around issues such as drink driving and seatbelt use, but unfortunately some people still have a mindset that it is okay to speed.
“The reality is that every day our officers and the NHS see the devastating impact of people driving at excessive and inappropriate speeds. These changes will ensure that safety cameras are used more effectively to encourage safe driver behaviour, prevent crashes, and save lives.
“Last year we had to tell over 60 families that their loved ones were not coming home. We often hear the line, ‘go and catch some real criminals’ and in response to that I reaffirm our commitment to preventing deaths and injuries by deterring people from speeding.
“Where appropriate we will provide driver re-training opportunities as an alternative to prosecution, with the more serious or persistent offenders being referred to court. Our aim is to intervene before speeders must face the consequences of killing or injuring someone on our roads.
“Our commitment to Vision Zero is all about influencing driver behaviour and reducing exposure to speed related risks. No-one should die or be seriously injured on the roads. Inappropriate and excessive speed leads to deaths and injuries which are often preventable.”
The West Yorkshire Safety Camera Partnership – which consists of the five West Yorkshire local authority highways teams and West Yorkshire Police – working with the West Yorkshire Safe Roads Partnership is committed to preventing all avoidable road deaths under the Vision Zero ambition. Vision Zero is a strategy to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries while increasing safe, healthy, and equitable mobility for all road users.
Alison Lowe, Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, said:
“We all have a part to play in making our roads safer, both the authorities and the road users.
“That is why we have set up a West Yorkshire-wide Vision Zero Board to reduce, and hopefully eliminate, road deaths and serious injuries. The Mayor and I fully support this approach as one death on our roads is one death too many.
“We know, through the surveys my office runs, that road safety is a key issue for residents. We are committed to tackling and educating people around the Fatal Five, which are careless driving, drink and drug driving, not wearing a seatbelt, using a mobile phone and speeding.
“All of us have a responsibility to make our roads safer and avoid the misery and devastation that any one of the Fatal Five can cause, and we can only tackle this successfully together.”
Councillor Naheed Mather, Cabinet Member for Environment at Kirklees Council said:
“We welcome the changes in the way safety cameras are deployed in Kirklees, and West Yorkshire as a whole, and fully support the Vision Zero ambition to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries. We look forward to working together with West Yorkshire Police and other West Yorkshire authorities in bringing about these changes which will help make the roads in our borough a much safer place for all.”
Councillor Carole Pattison, Cabinet Member for Learning, Aspirations and Communities at Kirklees Council said:
“As a board member of Vision Zero, I am really pleased to see these changes taking place with regards to safety cameras across West Yorkshire. Further improving the safety of our roads and reducing death and injury is a key priority not only for the Vision Zero Board but for Kirklees Council. We hope these changes will help bring about behaviour change and attitude to speed, in turn making all our roads much safer places for everyone.”
Accredited driver retraining options will continue to be available for eligible driver offenders as an alternative to prosecution. With the aim of positively influencing future driver behaviour. Repeat offenders and those who drive at inappropriate or dangerous speeds are likely to be summonsed to court.
The West Yorkshire Safety Camera Partnership is funded by offender education courses and any additional costs recovered are used to support local road safety projects.
You can find out more details about the West Yorkshire Safety Camera Partnership and details of the core ‘high-risk’ sites for speed enforcement on the West Yorkshire Safety Camera Partnership website.