Speed And Road Safety
Cars today are being manufactured to ever higher specifications, in pretty much all areas of their construction.
Modern cars have safety features far beyond the trusty seat belt, but they are also becoming more powerful and thus, the potential for faster driving is growing.
A simple family saloon is a far different vehicle to the simple family saloon of say, thirty years ago. Now it probably carries the potential to be driven in excess of 100mph, as do a great number of modern cars on today’s roads.
The Police introduction of a whole array of different types of speed camera, has been accused by some as a means of simply raising revenue.
In some cases that may, or may not be, but the Police have to enforce the law of the land which has been devised primarily for the safety of the motorists themselves.
Speeding is now the commonest motoring offence in the UK. The rise in camera numbers is pretty much in correlation with the rise in the number of these offences.
On standard urban and rural roads, the ubiquitous yellow-boxed camera on its grey metal pole is a familiar sight to motorists, and has made a considerable contribution to road safety, it is claimed.
Others claim it contributes to bad driving, causing some drivers to slow excessively.
Other camera types are used in safety partnership vehicles, which are deployed roadside in yellow striped vans, at potential blackspot points.
Cameras with ANPR capability, are used in average speed checks over a certain distance. The first camera identifies the vehicle and logs its time, the next camera compares the time taken between the two, and therefore the speed of it.
Motorway Speed Cameras
On motorways, the cameras employed are perhaps the most sophisticated. They are small, grey, devices on gantries over the carriageways, which automatically adjust to temporary speed restrictions, designed to control the flow of traffic.
In heavy traffic, speed limits are reduced to 60 mph, 50 mph or sometimes 40 mph as this has been shown to keep traffic flowing more steadily, getting people where they are going more quickly and safer than leaving us to our own devices.
It’s never been easier to inadvertently creep over the speed limit and being prosecuted, but there are steps you can take to minimise your punishment. Talk to Patterson Law to defend speeding allegations. Best of all, asking a question is completely free.