In message
"Recliner" wrote:

"Graeme" wrote in message

In message
Chris Tolley (ukonline really)
wrote:

Neil Williams wrote:

As for cameras, they have their place - though I am far more in
support of SPECS cameras than "point" GATSOs, as the latter only
seem to cause panic braking. If Oxfordshire are cutting funding so
they'll all be turned off...

What I don't get about this is why they need any funding at all,
given how much people whine about them doing nothing but raising
money.

Because the money goes direct to the treasury, not the county.

Jon Porter's assertions aside, the evidence of the effectiveness of
speed cameras in general is somewhat equivocal. While some may
appear to be effective one has to take into account other changes
that were made at the same time, a factor that is ignored by the
so-called safety-camera activists.

A colleague of mine tried to do a documentary on the effectiveness or
otherwise of speed cameras and speed limits in general and found that
anyone who didn't toe the party line was effectively gagged.

Near where I live, there was a fatal accident a couple of years ago, on
a straight road, approaching a set of traffic lights, in broad daylight,
with clear visibility. An elderly lady motorist in a very ordinary car
managed to run over and kill two other elderly lady pedestrians on the
pavement. Her car was so badly damaged that the roof had to be cut off
and she was helicoptered to hospital.

Why would such an unlikely accident happen (assuming it wasn't some an
ancient vendetta between the ladies in question)?

Was it an automatic? I've covered two major accidents that were caused by an
elderly driver getting confused by auomatic controls. The first was a Rolls
Royce in Romsey that destroyed about 5 cars and half demolished a shop-front
because the driver hit the kickdown accidentally. Fortunately no one was
hurt in that one.

The second was more tragic, an elderly woman mowed down a bus queue in New
Milton, killing at least 6 people. Again it was thought she may have hit the
kickdown by accident.

: One possible explanation may be the speed camera she had just driven
past, which may well have distracted her, especially if she had just been
flashed.

It's a possibilty.

My own encounter with inappropriately sited speed cameras was joining the A40
one evening at Hangar Lane. There was a camera by the side of the slip road
but aimed at the main carriageway. As I passed it it was triggered by a car
on the main road and the flash went off right beside me and reflected off the
inside of my windscreen momentarily blinding me just as I was trying to join
a fast moving and fairly heavy traffic stream.


--
Graeme Wall

This address not read, substitute trains for rail
Transport Miscellany at www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail
Photo galleries at http://graeme-wall.fotopic.net/