Government figures show crash reduction at safety camera sites
The Chief Statistician for the Scottish Government published today the latest report on the effectiveness of safety cameras. Both the national figures and the local Strathclyde figures present a very positive picture of the role being played by safety cameras in road safety.
As in the last such report, the statistics show that the reduction in crashes/casualties at safety camera sites is higher than on roads in general. The statistics are based on comparison between the three-year baseline data for each camera site against the most recent three years. The full report can be read at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/SafeCam
The main findings are:
- The number of people killed or seriously injured each year, on stretches of roads covered by safety cameras, is 63% lower following camera enforcement.
- The number of injury accidents (including fatal, serious and slight injuries) at safety camera sites per year is 47% per cent lower following camera enforcement.
- Over the last six years the number of speed and red-light offences caught on camera has reduced year-on-year. In the financial year 2004-05 more than 161,000 people were issued with a conditional offer of a fixed penalty notice as a result of offences caught on safety cameras; in 2009-10 this figure was less than 63,000.
- 80% of people responding to the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey 2009-10 agree that people should see the use of safety cameras as a good thing.
Data relating to safety camera sites in Strathclyde has been extracted from the full Scottish report. These results show that in the West of Scotland, crash and casualty reductions are seen to be above the national average in all camera type and severity categories. As with the national report, our results are a further improvement on last year’s report.
At this stage we do not have a more detailed breakdown of the statistics beyond the whole Partnership area.
In summary the key headline stats to take from Strathclyde’s figures are:
• During the three-year period 2008 to 2010, the number of all injury crashes at safety camera sites in Strathclyde was on average 56% lower than the number recorded during the three-year baseline period at each site.
(compared with a 47% reduction at Scottish cameras, and a 51% reduction quoted for Strathclyde cameras in last years report)
• Over the same time, the number of people killed or seriously injured at safety camera sites in Strathclyde was around 71% lower.
(compared with a 63% reduction at Scottish cameras, and a 64% reduction quoted for Strathclyde cameras in last years report)
• In comparison, the number of people killed or seriously injured on all of Strathclyde’s roads during the period from 2008 to 2010 was 53% lower than the 1997 to 1999 average.
(compared with a 44% reduction on Scotland’s roads, and a 49% reduction quoted for Strathclyde’s roads last year)