Intranetics Motoring News Service

Speed cameras go mobile

8th August 2007 | BACK     PRINT

Speed cameras could soon be attached to police bikes the length and breadth of the country, if a new initiative is taken up by officers.

Although hardly the most popular modern feature on UK roads - or anywhere else for that matter - cameras are still backed by their creators, with recent figures suggesting that they do save lives. Now, police in East Yorkshire have taken the devices one step further, designing a camera able to be fitted onto a motorbike.

The new gadget will be able to track the speed of motorists but also monitor their behaviour on the road. And cash for the new James Bond style device has been put up by the East Riding Casualty Reduction Partnership, a body committed to cutting the number of accidents in that part of the country.

According to figures released by Humberside Police, the authority to use the new camera, 107 people have lost their lives so far in traffic accidents in East Yorkshire. In addition, 31 of these were motorcyclists - something that the officers will be hoping to keep a closer eye on as they undertake this new method of road policing.

Importantly, any footage recorded using the camera will be admissible as evidence, potentially leading to convictions for unsafe motorists and thereby making the roads a safer place.

PC Glen Dennis, a casualty reduction officer at East Riding, commented: "We want people to be able to feel safe whilst they are traveling around the region and by having a police presence on the roads I hope this will reassure them.

"We also want to educate people about safer driving techniques and motorists will be spoken to about their behaviour."

Last year, East Riding of Yorkshire Council's Humberside Safety Camera Partnership claimed that speed cameras are indeed having a positive effect in the area. Figures showed that since the operations first installed three years ago, 129 fewer people have been seriously injured or killed due to the devices, while 361 fewer crashes at camera sites were recorded.

It's clear that officers and council officials have every faith in their effectiveness and will utilise them and innovate in the war against road deaths.

As PC Dennis said: "We have too many people being either killed or seriously injured in the East Riding and we will continue to roll out different techniques in order to reduce the numbers."

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