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SPEED CAMERAS 'TOO PROFITABLE'
Roads with high numbers of injury accidents are targets for cameras
Police in Thames Valley are making so much money from speeding drivers
that they cannot spend it all. Up to £3m in speeding fines
may have to be returned to the government this year because a local
road safety group has already covered its costs. But campaigners
have defended the scheme, saying the money would stop rolling in
if motorists stopped breaking the law.
Chris Scoxton, from Thames Valley Police Safer Roads Partnership
said: "There is a probability that Thames Valley Police will
return to the government about £3m this year. "The partnership
is allowed to bid for money for the operation of the safety cameras
scheme but we have no idea what the fines will be. If our fines
are in excess that goes back to the Treasury and we have no say
in what's done with it."
It wouldn't be very profitable if everyone stuck to the speed limit
Kate Smith, Thames Valley Police
A national newspaper has labelled one of the team's speed cameras
"Britain's most profitable" after IT reportedly earned
£25,000 a week. The Sun reported the Gatso camera, which is
hidden in the back of a van, had a success rate of catching one
motorist every 95 seconds. It is operated in two roads in the centre
of Reading, Berkshire - Vastern Road and King's Road. The Sun said
the camera caught 152 drivers breaking the 30mph limit in just three
hours 40 minutes.
Kate Smith from Thames Valley Police said the figures were recorded
during a few hours.
Fall in deaths and injury "The camera is not watching every
day of every week so it does not have an income of £25,000
a week," she said. "The camera is there as often as it
needs to be. It wouldn't be very profitable if everyone stuck to
the speed limit." She said over the past three years, 25 people
have been injured on Vastern Road, one of them seriously.
Most accidents were speed related. In areas where speed cameras
are used the number of deaths or serious injuries on the roads has
fallen by one person a week, according to Mr Scoxton.
"We don't need to be on this road from a finance point of view
because there comes a point when every single penny goes to the
government," he said. "We are trying to change driver
behaviour in general not just on this quarter mile of road but by
doing something there we hope it will affect their behaviour across
the whole region."
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