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HIDDEN REPORT REVEALS SERIOUS SPEED CAMERA DANGERS
TRL report number 595, commissioned by the Highways Agency and delivered in early 2004, looked at motorway road works crashes and evaluated the effects of various safety treatments.
Safe Speed obtained a full copy and found the following information:
- Where fixed speed cameras were installed at road works the risk of personal injury crashes was increased by 55%.
- Where fixed speed cameras were installed on open motorways the risk of injury crashes was increased by 31%.
- Average speed cameras also increased the risk of crashes by 4.5% at roadworks and 6.7% elsewhere.
- Conventional Police patrols reduced the risk of crashes by 27% at road works and 10% elsewhere.
- Speed cameras were associated with an increase in crash severity with fatal and serious crashes being 32% more likely where speed cameras were operated.
- Motorway road works are no more dangerous than open motorways.
The executive summary of the report shows that, the damaging information presented in the report is not calculated out - except as an aggregate with Police patrols included. These patrols showed a positive benefit whilst the speed cameras showed a negative effect. The two were allowed to cancel out to show zero as a net benefit.
But Network also looked at what the Dft has put on their web site: -
Summary of TRL Report TRL595 2004
SAFETY PERFORMANCE OF TRAFFICMANAGEMENT AT MAJOR MOTORWAY ROAD WORKS by M Freeman, J Mitchell and G A Coe
This report reviews the fourth motorway safety performance study carried out on behalf of the
Highways Agency. Previous studies were carried out in 1982, 1987 and 1992. The studies have provided the Agency with key information on the safety of traffic management at major works.
This study has monitored 29 major motorway road work sites over the period November 2001 to July 2003. The sample covered approximately 730km of road, over a total of 3,340 days which equates to an exposure of 4,176 million vehicle kilometres. This level of exposure is approximately 3.5 times greater than the study carried out in 1992. For this exposure, 423 Personal Injury Accidents (PIAs) were recorded at the work sites and, for control, data was also collected for 1187 PIAs over the previous 3 years at the sites when no road works were present.
The study showed that there was no significant difference in the rate of PIAs when road works were present on the motorway. When compared with the 1992 results the 'with' works PIA rate has reduced from 0.174 to 0.101. This figure is same as the national average PIA rate for motorways (0.10) to two decimal places. It is thought that this reduction is due to the many safety measures and practices introduced by the Highways Agency over the past decade.
These measures have increased driver awareness and improved driver behaviour through road works to the extent that generally even where the measures have not been introduced the PIA rate has reduced to a figure close to the National average.
The severity and number of casualties were also reduced with the presence of road works.
The cumulative cost associated with each fatal, serious and slight PIA was calculated for the 'with' and 'without' works periods using figures from the Highways Economic Note 1 (HEN1). Overall there were less fatal and serious PIAs in the 'with' works period and this resulted in a reduction in PIA costs of £292,860.
No significant difference was observed in the PIA rate for sites with and without speed cameras.
However, there was a 2% reduction in the proportion of Fatal PIAs and a 1% reduction in the proportion of Fatal and Serious PIAs recorded at the sites with speed cameras, when compared to the without works period.
The most frequent PIA types observed at the works sites were Multiple Vehicle Shunts, Multiple Vehicle (Overtaking errors) and Single Vehicle (hit other object) accidents.
Factors such as weather, road conditions, number of vehicles involved and lighting conditions were also analysed but all did not have a significant effect on road work PIAs.
The conclusion of this study is that due to the increased number of safety measures and practices over the past decade, the risk (in terms of PIAs) when road works are present is similar to the risk when no road works are present.
However, it should be noted that this study has only investigated PIAs and there is no evidence to suggest that the trend has been the same for damage only accidents. The inclusion of damage only accidents in such a study would be practically impossible as no adequate and formal records of damage only accidents on the roads are recorded.
A review of the Highways Agency's HAWSAR records indicate that there have been very few reported workforce accidents associated with the29 road work sites.
© Crown copyright 2004.
This report has been produced by TRL Limited, under/as part of a Contract placed by the Highways Agency.
Any views expressed are not necessarily those of the Agency.
The reason this Network is published early is that we can quote freely from the Dft site until September 30th then we have to ask permission!
NOW FOR THE TRUTH:
http://www.thenewspaper.com/rlc/docs/04-trl595.pdf
SECRET UK STUDY: SPEED CAMERAS INCREASE INJURY ACCIDENTS
Full text of suppressed UK government study shows speed cameras increase accidents 31 percent on freeways, 55 percent in work zones.
The UK Department for Transport funded, then suppressed, a study that shows a 55 percent increase in injury accidents when speed cameras are used on highway work zones and a 31 percent increase when used on freeways without construction projects.
According to the Transport Research Laboratory, the "non-works [personal injury accident] rate is significantly higher for the sites with speed cameras than the rate for sites without."
An analysis of this data, buried on page 43 of the report, yields the following result:
Although the Department for Transport's Highways Agency funded the study, no information regarding these results was ever made public until a Freedom of Information Act request was honoured earlier this month. The Transport Research Laboratory attempted to suppress the UK taxpayer-funded study further by charging £40 (US $72) for access to the results.
Moreover, the study's executive summary calculates only the aggregate accident rate including the benefit of manned police patrol cars in the work zones. The significant decrease in accidents from a human police presence was used to offset the increase in camera accidents.
"It is outrageous that this sort of information has been hidden from the public," said Safe Speed road safety campaign founder Paul Smith whose FOIA request uncovered the study's existence. "We have all seen strange driver behaviour where fixed speed cameras operate. This report highlights the dangers.
We're not surprised to see this information -- we have know for years that speed cameras were the wrong road safety strategy, and it's a huge relief to see the truth coming out so clearly"
The TRL study compared accident reports covering 29 highway construction zone projects over 730km of road from November 2001 to July 2003 with an equivalent period without the construction zones, controlling for changes in traffic volume. In the US, the state of Illinois plans to implement a similar freeway work zone speed camera program within the next few months.
The full text of this taxpayer-funded public policy document is available in 620K PDF format at the source link below, saving you £40.
Source: Safety Performance of Traffic Management at Major Motorway Road Works (Transport Research
Laboratories, 8/5/2005) http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/06/602.asp
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