Safe Speed presents...

1. Safe Speed presents... Why and how speed cameras cost lives

2. Section 1 • What is happening on our roads? • Why is this happening? • How do we fix it?

3. Our road safety disaster • Since 1993, we have lost a 50 year beneficial trend in fatal accidents. • Road deaths are “stuck” at over 3,400. • But projections of pre-1993 trends lead to present road death estimates of 1,800 to 2,200 per annum • Over 5,500 people have died on our roads to date due to this loss of trend

5. What changed in 1993? • We began to base our national road safety policy on “speed kills”, backed by speed cameras. • We also ran national campaigns about the dangers of speeding • And the Police began to leave the safety of the roads to “PC Gatso”

6. Is this happening worldwide? • No. We have noted that many countries continue to show road safety improvements at the previous rate. • Germany, France and Italy for example have clear ongoing improvements • Sweden and Australia are showing a similar loss of trend to ours • These effects demand proper scientific study

7. A system supported by lies • It isn’t true that speed causes many accidents (Only about 5%) • It isn’t true that slowing traffic alone will reduce the number of accidents • Claims of accident reductions at speed camera sites are normally due to statistical errors. • The lies are generally mistaken beliefs based on over-simplification

8. Faith and facts • It’s easy to believe that “speed kills” • Flawed and limited research appears to support the idea • The modern road safety establishment tends to accept the flawed research • But looking just a little deeper reveals no supporting substantial facts • “Speed kills” is a matter of faith not fact

9. Speed • Speed is easy to measure • But we’re not measuring the right sort of speed (more on that later!) • The attraction of easy measurement and the hope of a road safety quick fix is deluding a generation • But after a decade of speed limit reductions and ever-increasing speed enforcement the results are awful

10. Information control • The road safety information from the DfT and the so-called safety camera partnerships is very tightly controlled to make the modern road safety policy sound reasonable and successful • It’s highly immoral and dangerous to feed false road safety information to the public

11. Section 2 • What is happening on our roads? • Why is this happening? • How do we fix it?

12. Does speed kill? • Of course it does. The faster you go the harder you crash, and the less time you have to avoid a crash. • Of course it doesn’t. The most careful analysis of UK road safety shows a very limited connection between speeding and accidents. • What’s the reason for this conflict?

13. Speed kills? • There is much confusion over the exact meaning of the word “speed” • It is true that inappropriate speed for the conditions is extremely dangerous • It isn’t true that exceeding a speed limit in itself is dangerous • “Speed” can still kill just as effectively with high degrees of speed limit enforcement

14. Is faster more dangerous? • In the real world faster roads are safer. • Most accidents take place in town on 30mph roads • Our Motorways are the fastest roads and also by far the safest. • Faster roads are safer is true as a sound general principle

15. Excessive Speed Accidents • Gross examples are not generally caused by “normal motorists” • Most are probably entirely within the speed limit anyway • No degree of speed limit enforcement will prevent all of them • In fact very few are potentially within reach of speed enforcement

16. Dangerous Speeders? • Joyriders in stolen cars, drunks, police drivers on call and reckless drivers are not normally curtailed by speed enforcement • Normal responsible motorists a few miles per hour over the speed limit are rarely dangerous • Reckless behaviors sometimes mislead us about the dangers of speeding

17. Speed limits and Speed enforcement • Are both good… We need them • But we do not need high levels of speed enforcement directed at purely technical infringements • Worthwhile speed enforcement must be targeted at safety infringements • Has greatest effect on open roads away from hazards - exactly where it’s needed least

18. Real accident causes • The vast majority of accidents are caused by road user error • A small but important proportion of accidents are caused by road user violations • The vast majority of road user errors that cause accidents are carelessness, inattention or misjudgement

19. Carelessness and Inattention • Cause probably 75% of all road accidents • And probably 30 million near misses each year - (but only 2 million accidents and only about 2,000 fatalities) • We should be very afraid of those 30 million near misses - the wrong policy could turn some of them into dangerous accidents very easily

20. Driver attention • Tiny changes in average driver attention can make accidents out of near misses • “Speed kills” road safety policy is making quite large changes in the things that drivers pay attention to • We should not be surprised that fear of speed enforcement is causing lower average driver attention to important safety factors

21. Driver’s safety priorities • Experience teaches drivers to pay greatest attention to the most important safety factors • High levels of speed enforcement force drivers to give quite high attention to a fairly low safety priority • Too many drivers are now paying attention to speed limit compliance while an unseen dangerous situation develops ahead

22. Speed matters • The more we tell road users of the importance of speed limit compliance, the more they respond by treating it as an important safety factor • But keeping to the speed limit will not ensure that you can stop in time • We need “safe speed behaviour” instead

23. Safe speed behaviour • A safe speed is one that always allows a driver to stop within the distance that he knows to be clear • Keeping to a speed limit is no substitute • You could drive safely for years without having a working speedo, but wouldn’t last a minute with a blacked out windscreen!

24. Too much speed enforcement • Criminalises safe drivers causing injustice • Increases road dangers by distracting drivers and distorting their safety priorities • Drives a wedge between Police and public

25. Section 3 • What is happening on our roads? • Why is this happening? • How do we fix it?

26. International Fatality Rates

27. There is an alternative • There are vast differences in road safety performance between countries • The average UK driver is a very long way from the ideal • Road safety performance is a consequence of culture • Better safety culture leads to safer roads

28. The three “E”s of road safety • Engineering, Enforcement and Education • Recently we’ve had poor enforcement - too much dumb speed limit enforcement, and not enough intelligent Police enforcement • We’re missing out on the benefits of education - we could be doing so much more

29. Enforcement • There are dangerous behaviours on our roads that the police must deal with • But Police traffic strength is thought to have reduced from about 15% in 1993 to about 6% now • That makes it all the more important that they must apply their efforts to real dangers and not technical offences

30. Engineering • Real and constant gains in road safety come from vehicle safety advances and road engineering improvements. • These are big gains which are providing an ongoing benefit worth at least 5% per annum • Traffic increases annually by about 2.5%. It’s not enough to fully offset the gains from engineering improvements.

31. Education • Another classic way to improve road safety is through road user education • It’s proven to work to reduce accidents • But we’re hardly doing it • There’s huge scope for improvement

32. The fourth E: Encouragement • Ask any modern manager how to improve the performance of his team, and he’ll tell you they need encouragement and incentives • It’s the same with our drivers. We can improve their performance with encouragement and reward. • Such schemes have proved effective in commercial vehicle fleets

33. Improvements in drivers • A culture which encourages higher standards • Incentives for improvement • Educate to prevent repeating mistakes • Build on existing strengths • The average UK driver is at a very low standard compared with the ideal

34. What are our strengths? • We take driving seriously - both nationally and as individuals • We have the safest roads in the world • We have had the benefit of a centre of driving excellence • We have defined and proved excellent core values for real road safety

35. What are the core values? • Individual responsibility • Care and consideration for other road users • Courtesy • Patience • We must build on these core values to create an improved safety culture

36. Building a safety culture • We’ve already earned the safest roads in the world years before we had speed cameras • We can use the same principles to give equal improvements over the next few decades • Modern thinking in health and safety can help us to do even better

37. But... • Speed cameras will have to go • They are dangerous, distracting and misleading • They don’t measure important safety violations, they only measure technical infringements • And they don’t detect drunks, reckless drivers, stolen cars or bald tyres (to name a few!)

38. Conclusions • Too many speed cameras are actually making our roads more dangerous • “Speed kills” road safety policy is based on lies and mistakes • There is an alternative based on a proven approach • We must get back on track as soon as possible

39. You can’t measure safe driving in miles per hour Visit http://www.safespeed.org.uk for more information

40. Regression to the mean • There’s a new cure for the ‘flu • All you have to do is clap your hands every day that you’re sick • Virtually everyone who tried it got better • Therefore we know it’s 100% effective • In road safety, “regression to the mean” often leads to illusions of benefit from a safety treatment.

41. Regression to the mean