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Our first members’ meeting of 2007 attracted an audience of about 20, including Trevor Pembroke, the No 2 Regional Coordinator, to Bayer’s atrium. The speaker was PC Dave Thomas, a serving traffic policeman and one of the Newbury examiners, and his topic was Speed Management. He explained that his job title is Casualty Reduction Officer (CRO), part of the neighbourhood policing initiative at Borough level, and that he sees his job as 80% education and 20% enforcement.
The role exists because the Government is concerned about the number of people killed and seriously injured (KSI) on the UK’s roads. Only 480 people have been killed on the railways since records began in the 1890s, and the Government has allocated £33 million over the next five years to reduce railway deaths – but there is nothing for road safety. The technology exists to have speed limiters in cars, but that would not be a popular move.
Despite about 34 million vehicles on UK roads, deaths per vehicle have reduced over the last 10 years. The main reason is that cars are now safer, with side impact protection, airbags, ABS, ESP, and so on. Paramedic training and roadside attention, including helicopter evacuation, are also of better quality, allowing treatment within the ‘golden hour’ which is vital for survival. Also improved is the knowledge of crash victims’ injuries. But people still drive as badly as ever – or worse, as there are more distractions.
A ‘KSI’ is defined as a death, an overnight stay in hospital or a trip in an ambulance; no records are kept for non-injury accidents. The Government sets targets to reduce the KSI figures up to the year 2010. It also provides money, which funds 11 CROs in Surrey and three in the Thames Valley.
The CRO organisation has three main arms. The road policing unit (formerly traffic police) mainly deals with accidents – only 5% of its role is enforcement. The second arm is the Safety Camera Partnership, which looks at the KSI figures, decides the causation factors and then bids for money from the Home Office for fixed cameras or mobile enforcement. Camera sites must use revenue to pay for themselves, after which they are capped. The whole system is reviewed every three years. The third arm is reassurance: parish councillors notify complaints about speed limit abuse, and the CRO then installs speed detection equipment to check average speeds
Speed investigation is also done by the Highways Agency. A speed data recorder (SDR) is installed to capture data about vehicles’ length, speed and the time; the data are then downloaded onto a personal computer
The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) issues guidelines to standardise the treatment of speed-related offences across police areas. Examples of the guidelines are: for a vehicle travelling at up to 35-36 mph in a 30-mph limit, a policeman can exercise discretion; 36-40 mph results in a fixed-penalty ticket option; and above 40 mph will result in prosecution in court. Road police can now issue a Driver Alert – a warning endorsed with photos of road accidents
Vehicle Activated Signs (VAS) flash up the speed limit if a vehicle exceeds it. They are normally used in a 6-8 week campaign, with an SDR and Driver Alert being brought in after 4-5 weeks. After that the VAS is removed and every speeding driver will receive a ticket.
In Surrey, the Gatsos (speed cameras) are set to fire at 9 mph over the speed limit – otherwise there would be too many offences for them to handle. Each camera contains 400 shots – that is 200 speed enforcements because each one requires two photos. After that the film gets full and the camera can no longer operate. On the M25, within the variable speed limits, the cameras are automatically reset when the speed limit changes
Dave then described Community Speed Watch, under which the police train volunteers to use a radar speed gun. They report the registration number of the speeding vehicle and the police then write to the offenders. If they are caught again they receive a red letter, and after the third time the police pay them a visit and issue a stern warning. They are aided by a new law (under Section 59) of antisocial behaviour of vehicles.
Speed management is not about prosecuting motorists – it is about reducing speed. Dave provided the following figures: 30 mph is 44 feet per second, so to obey the ‘two-second rule’ when following a vehicle needs a gap of 88 feet, which is about seven car lengths. 70 mph is 103 feet per second, so a two-second gap is now 206 feet, or nearly 16 car lengths. A vehicle traveling at 35 mph takes 21 feet further to stop than one moving at 30 mph, if both start braking at the same point.
In answer to a question from the audience, Dave said that the motorway speed limit remains at 70 mph because most drivers are not competent, in terms of observation, reaction times and following distance, to cope with a higher limit.