Road safety - speed checks

Statistics about speed related injuries and the use of safety (speed and red light) cameras.

On average, 10 people die and 100 people are seriously injured on Great Britain's roads each day. Two-thirds of all crashes in which people are killed or injured happen on roads with a speed limit of 30mph or less. At 35mph a driver is twice as likely to kill someone as they are at 30mph.

• If hit by a car at 40mph, there is a 90% chance the pedestrian will be killed
• If hit by a car at 30mph, there is an 80% chance the pedestrian will survive
• If hit by a car at 20mph, there is a 95% chance of survival

Accident risk rises the faster a driver travels and by driving at 25% above the speed limit, a driver is about six times more likely to have a collision. At 30mph, vehicles travel 44 feet (about three car lengths) every second. In good conditions, the difference in stopping distance between 30mph and 35mph is an extra 21 feet - which equates to more than two car lengths.

Inconsiderate Speeding Initiative

To help resolve the issue of local speeding problems Solihull Council run in conjunction with the Police an Inconsiderate Speeding Initiative. The aim of the initiative seeks to change driver's attitude and behaviour by raising awareness to local speed limits by the use of "Kill your Speed" posters, a vehicle activated sign, followed by police enforcement. The scheme has proved an extremely successful way of helping to reduce traffic speeds where other alternative traffic calming measures are not suitable or justified.

Cameras

The West Midlands Casualty Reduction Partnership manage the safety cameras (speed and red-light) cameras across the West Midlands region. The Partnership consists of 7 Local Authorities, Highways Agency, Magistrates Courts and West Midlands Police who all work together to provide an effective solution for speed and casualty reduction.

The Partnership formed in 2002 with the sole aim of reducing casualties on our roads. To achieve this money raised through fining motorists photographed by speed or traffic light cameras is used to implement road safety measures through Education, Engineering and Enforcement.

Every year 3000 people are killed on UK roads and more than 300,000 people are injured. Research into the causes of these crashes suggests that excessive speed contributes to more than 375 deaths and 36,000 injuries on the road - that's almost double the number of deaths and injuries caused by drink-driving.

Don't ever think that collisions and injury are something that happen to other people - they can happen to us all. Remember that every day, in the West Midlands alone, more than 3 people die or are seriously injured - because they thought it was someone else's problem. If we all take more care on the roads, we can save lives.

It has been proved nationally that speed cameras can reduce the number of road collisions and protect road users by encouraging people to drive more slowly. In February 2003, the Department for Transport (DfT) published a research report that analysed the effectiveness of the safety camera partnerships in the eight initial pilot areas over the first two years (April 2000 to March 2002). The report showed high level results which are summarised below:

• Vehicle speeds were down by 71% at fixed sites and at mobile sites speeds were reduced by 21%.
• Both casualties and deaths were down. After allowing for the long-term trend there was 40% fewer people killed or seriously injured. At camera sites, there was also a reduction of over 100 fatalities per annum (40% fewer)

Contact Details

If you require accident data please contact the Road Safety Group

Telephone: 0121 704 6359

Email: environment@solihull.gov.uk