Convicted Driver
Speed camera system 'a mess'
Fri, 30 Jun 2006
The way that speed cameras are operated in order to improve road safety and reduce the number of deaths is a mess, a motoring expert has claimed.
Writing in a new range of road atlases, Road expert Stephen Mesquita highlighted the huge variation that exists between different regions of the UK in the number of speed cameras used and the likelihood of prosecution if caught speeding.
Speeding convictions can increase car insurance premiums with some insurance providers, making convicted driver insurance increasingly necessary.
Mr Mesquita complained that the number of speed cameras on the roads varied massively, from one for every 10,000 drivers in the West Midlands, to one for every 60,000 in Northumberland.
There is also a lack of consistency in how much over the speed limit a driver needs to be driving at in order to be prosecuted, with police forces under no obligation to reveal this information.
"The whole thing is a complete mess and it in need of a radical shake-up," Mr Mesquita wrote.
"Speed cameras that save lives are, of course, a good thing. But what we have now is a system that is hard to understand, inconsistently operated and which turns too many otherwise law-abiding motorists into law-breakers."
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