Speed cameras have no impact on accident reduction

Speed cameras have little or no effect on reducing road accident on roads in the West Midlands, statistics released today suggest.

The success and failure of speed cameras in the region has been laid bare after statistics and locations of every one in the region were published online.

The government has made every council and police authority in the country provide a means for the public to access information and statistics on the numbers of accidents and casualties at camera sites dating back to 1990.

Councils in the West Midlands are members of the West Midlands Casualty Reduction Scheme.

But earlier this year they axed £750,000 of funding to operate them, leaving West Midlands Police to put £1 million in on its own.

There are 57 sites in the West Midlands where cameras are switched on for eight days a month and 34 in use most of the time.

The website shows that some cameras have had absolutely no effect on the number of people killed or seriously injured.

One on New Rowley Road in St Thomas's was installed despite no serious accidents in the three years prior to 2002 but there have been two since.

A camera on Halesowen Road, Halesowen, was installed in 2003 and had had two people killed or seriously injured in the three years prior to that, but three such accidents in the following three years.

Two cameras were put on Newton Road in Great Barr. There had been only one serious accident between 1994 and 1997, when it was installed, but there were five on each side of the road within three years of it being put in place.

A camera on Cinder Bank in Netherton cut the number of deaths and serious injuries from 10 in the three years prior to its installation in 1999 to two in the three years afterwards.

Transport minister Mike Penning said: "We want to improve accountability and make sure that the public are able to make informed judgements about the decisions made on their behalf. So if taxpayers' money is being spent on speed cameras then it is right that information about their effectiveness is available to the public.

For details click here.

In Staffordshire the locations of cameras and the date they came into use can be viewed here but there are no statistics available yet.