Speed camera-mad Britain losing road deaths battle

Britain is the speed camera capital of Europe but is fast losing the battle to reduce road deaths.

Yet despite an unrelenting war on the motorist, Britain's record for saving lives and reducing accidents is much worse than other countries.

An over-reliance on cameras - at a time when fewer traffic police are patrolling the roads - has led to an alarming relative rise in drink-drive deaths.

As a result, Britain has plummeted in Europe's road-safety league table.

Critics say this is proof that the speed-camera policy has failed.

According to the latest figures, there are now 5,562 roadside speed cameras in Britain. That compares to 1,935 back in 2000.

Over the same period, mobile speed traps have increased from just 173 to 2,373.

The latest figures confirming Britain as having the highest number of speed cameras in Europe were revealed in a Parliamentary written answer to Tory transport spokesman Owen Paterson.

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It came as Britain was shown to no longer have the safest roads in Europe, thanks largely to the failure to tackle drink-driving.

It has lost its top-ranking position in the European road safety league because progress on reducing the number of road deaths has been slower than other countries.

Britain now has 54 road deaths per million of population, according to the European Transport Safety Council's first road safety report.

This is more than the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway and Malta.

The report shows that between 2001 and 2005 there was a mere seven per cent reduction in the number of road deaths in Britain compared to a 25 per cent drop in Sweden and the Netherlands and 35 per cent in France.

Drink driving deaths have risen by two per cent in Great Britain and by one per cent in Northern Ireland, compared to a drop of 11 per cent in the Czech republic, nine per cent in Belgium and six per cent in Germany.

"The country has made little progress on reducing road deaths between 2001 and 2005," the council's report says.

"Numbers of drink-driving deaths in Great Britain have remained high over the last decade. They have actually risen in relation to other deaths, so this has slowed down the overall reduction in road deaths."

Yesterday, separate research from the speed camera alert system Wayfinder also showed Britain topping the European league table for cameras.

Wayfinder, which used statistics compiled at an earlier date, found 4,875 cameras in Britain, followed by Germany (3,108), Italy (1,945), Holland (1,594), Belgium (1,180) and France (973).

In addition, for every 620 miles of road, there are 20 cameras in Britain, nine in Germany, six in Italy, two in France and just one in Spain.

A Wayfinder spokesman said: "Britain is undoubtedly the speed camera capital of Europe.

"Until now, ministers and police have insisted they are there to save lives, not to raise revenue, which is why the locations are made known - on road safety grounds. But in future there could instead be a hidden mobile speed camera on every corner."

Wayfinder has unveiled a mobile-phone based "Speed Alert" to warn drivers of speed limits and camera locations throughout Western Europe.

A separate report by insurers swiftcover.com, prepared by Datamonitor, reveals that cameras now cost motorists £145million a year in fines and increased premiums.

In all, fixed penalties rose from 1,898,320 in 2004-2005 to 1,910,474 in 2005-2006.

Yesterday Transport minister Stephen Ladyman insisted Britain still has some of the safest roads in the world.

At a private meeting of road safety experts, he was accused of trying to deflect the blame for Labour's "failed policy" to the police.

The allegation followed the leaking of a critical letter he has written to police chiefs, ordering them to put greater emphasis on drink and drugdriving offences and traffic patrols.

But police blame ministers for failing to make roads policing a high enough priority.

Tory transport spokesman Mr Paterson said: "It's ludicrous to try and police 30 million motorists with automated machines. We need real living people, not roadside robots."