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		Speed cameras are not the answer Lincolnshire Echo - June 29 2004 You open the post in the morning, and there it is. A speeding ticket. A £60 fine. Three points on your licence. You probably don't remember what speed you were doing. You may not remember that you were on that street at all. You have no hope of offering any kind of defence. You just have to grin and bear it, but you feel sick to your stomach. Some people can actually lose their licences and their livelihoods as a result of a few moments of carelessness - even though they may have been driving safely for decades. Yet young tearaways who are banned from driving walk straight out of court and into their cars. It's a funny kind of justice when you can be going about your normal business, doing your best, with no intention of breaking the law, yet days or weeks later you can be hit with a ticket. Big brother was watching you. The government tells us that cameras save lives - although the evidence is mixed, and it is clear that accidents have actually gone up at some camera sites. Camera campaigners try to suggest that saving lives is the only issue. Of course it's a critical issue, but let me put my head over the parapet and suggest that it isn't the only issue. When motor cars were first allowed on the road, parliament in its wisdom passed the Red Flag Act. Cars could drive on the road, but only if preceded by a man on foot carrying a red flag, to warn passers-by. In other words, a speed limit of about four miles an hour. We could save perhaps 3000 lives a year by bringing back the Red Flag Act. We would also cripple our economy, and constrain the lives of ordinary people intolerably. Or take air travel - we could prevent all air crash fatalities by banning air travel. But no one seriously suggests we should. There is a balance to be struck between safety, and the ability to lead a normal life. Speed cameras, which persecute ordinary motorists, may be upsetting that balance. "Speed Kills", say the posters. But of course speed does not kill. Accidents kill, and we need to understand the causes of accidents. It's clear that a large number of factors are involved - traffic conditions, road conditions, weather conditions, vehicle maintenance, and above all, drivers' attitude and driving style. Careless or aggressive driving is the greatest cause of accidents. Of course speed is a factor, but even the government admits that it causes only 13% of accidents. So why the huge emphasis on speed cameras? Well of course because they raise money. But there's more to it than that. It's because speed is the one factor that is easy to measure. Because we can measure it, we focus on it and ignore the other 87% of causes. The police rely on the cameras, and reduce highway patrols. Which is perhaps why, after years of reductions, road traffic deaths in Britain are starting to edge up again. Arguably, cameras are not the best way to promote safety, and not the best way to spend money. Statistics show that a high proportion of accidents take place at junctions. More money spent on improving junction layouts and sight-lines might well deliver a greater safety benefit than cameras. Above all, we need more police on the road, ready to challenge the tailgaters and the tearaways. We need to recognise that there is a proper balance to be struck between safety and the right to get on with our lives. We need to address the other factors that cause the great majority of accidents. And we need less emphasis on speed cameras.