Safety cameras were first deployed in the early 1990s in order to reduce speeds and casualties on the roads.
In a report titled 'The National Safety Camera Programme - 4 year evaluation report', carried out by the Department for Transport (DFT) in 2005 evaluating the effectiveness of safety cameras, the following findings were highlighted:
- There had been a significant reduction in speeds at camera sites based on a substantial body of evidence from a large number of sites across a number of partnership areas.
- The majority of the public supported the use of safety cameras for targeted enforcement.
- There was a strong association between the fall in speed and the fall in collisions, casualties and deaths at camera sites. The Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) reported in 1994 that every 1mph reduction in average speed led to a 5% reduction in collisions. A further study in 2000 validated this figure.
We are actively contributing to the 2010 targets set out by the Department for Transport document ‘The Government’s Road Safety Strategy’. Published in 2000, it set national targets of a 40% reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured, a 50% reduction in the number of children killed or seriously injured and a 10% reduction in the number of slight injury casualties per 100 million vehicle kilometres.
A baseline for these targets was calculated using the annual average for the 5 year period 1994 to 1998.
Department for Transport - Cameras Save Lives
Progress toward reducing collisions to save lives
In North Wales, we have reduced collisions where people were Killed or Seriously Injured (KSI) at camera sites by 48% and reduced the KSI collisions by 61% in Mid & South Wales.
We have also reduced the 85th percentile (the speed that 85% of vehicles are not exceeding) speed by 2.3mph in North Wales and reduced by 3.7mph in Mid & South Wales, slowing people down to save lives.