Press Release

27 July 2004

'Road deaths and injuries shatter lives'

Why must 4 people die before we are allowed a camera?
RoadPeace is calling for an end to the cruel and illogical demand for human sacrifices to justify speed cameras.

Each August, RoadPeace highlights an issue of concern to road users - this year it is the body count approach to safety cameras.

RoadPeace denounces Government criteria for justifying speed cameras as cruel, crude and illogical, as well as contrary to all other forms of road safety and public health interventions.

Safety cameras are a unique life-saving intervention, that is both self-financing and income generating, and all by penalising law-breakers. Instead of being hailed and used widely, their use is curtailed and they are denigrated by small sections of the media and public.

The Government has responded to the unreasonable criticisms of speed cameras by this tiny but vocal group, with the condition that cameras have to be painted bright yellow and that at least four deaths or serious injuries must have occurred in the previous three years on a 1 km stretch, before permission is granted for the installation of a camera in that area. All Safety Camera Partnerships have to abide by these criteria, irrespective of other clear evidence of danger and threat to life and limb.

Brigitte Chaudhry, RoadPeace Founder, said: "Cameras are extremely useful tools in the fight against road crime. RoadPeace advocates the positioning of safety cameras in known danger areas before people are hurt, rather than becoming 'after the event' memorials to preventable deaths. Why should we have to wait until four people are killed or seriously injured before a speed camera can be commissioned?"

Contacts:

RoadPeace office 020 8838 5102
Rita Taylor 01963 359 044
Brigitte Chaudhry 020 8964 1800
Zoe Stow 01491 642 857

Notes to Editors:

• RoadPeace is the UK's specialist charity dedicated to supporting bereaved and injured road traffic victims and representing their interests.
• August was chosen as Road Victim Month seven years ago -
  to commemorate the deaths of two well-known road crash victims - Bridget Driscoll, a mother and first ever car victim and Diana, Princess of Wales, another mother - and to warn people of the increased danger from traffic to children during the holiday period and to holidaymakers at home and abroad.
  Bridget Driscoll was killed on 17 August 1896 and the coroner said at her inquest that he hoped such a thing would never happen again. Diana, Princess of Wales, died in a car crash in Paris on 31 August 1997. Some 30 million people have been killed on the world's roads since 1896 and countless millions have been injured. Every year sees a further 1.2 million killed and 15 million seriously injured on the world's roads.

• Throughout August, RoadPeace's local groups and individual members will speak out against the body count approach to speed cameras. 31 August, the 1st anniversary of its launch, will see a nationwide promotion of the RoadPeace 'Remember Me' roadside memorial plaque, by RoadPeace groups.

The following Events will take place during August:

*6 August - Remembrance Ceremony, 4pm, at the RoadPeace Memorial Garden, Pilgrim's Drive, Beswick, Manchester - on the 4th anniversary of death of Jodie Webb and her friend Joanne Greenwood.

*14 August - Annual ceremony (on second Saturday in August) at the RoadPeace Wood, which is part of the National Memorial Arboretum in Alrewas, Staffordshire - 2pm, Ceremony in the chapel of the Arboretum, followed by a walk to the RoadPeace Wood.

*17 August - 108th Anniversary of the death of Bridget Driscoll at Crystal Palace, this year observed by delivering letters from RoadPeace to the Secretary of State for Health and all relevant health ministers, urging them to respond to the call by the World Health Organisation and to begin to address road death and injury as the major public health issue it is.

*28 August - Stand & be Counted, 2-3pm, opposite the Houses of Parliament, celebrating 6 years of demonstrating there on every last Saturday of the month.

*31 August - Flower laying ceremony, 12noon, at the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial, outside the Marriott Hotel, Queen's Square, Liverpool, on the 7th anniversary of her death.