News

Wednesday 25 July, 2007

Cumbrians Highlight "Dangerous" Roads

A66 and A595 Thought As Most Dangerous Roads In Cumbria
Young Drivers Admit They Are the Worst For Speeding

Cumbrians believe that the A66 is the road on which they are most likely to have an accident according to the latest survey from Cumbria Safety Cameras. Twenty one per cent of those questioned opted for the A66 while the A595 got the vote from 20% of the panel. Other roads that figured in the responses were the A590 and A6, both with 12%, and the A69 with 7%.

Kevin Tea, Communications Manager for Cumbria Safety Cameras, commented: “Interestingly four per cent answered that it was drivers and not the roads that were dangerous. This is certainly our standpoint as most hazards have been minimised or “engineered out” of the road network in the county. Studies we are doing into causation factors initially show that it is driver behaviour that is the cause of accidents as opposed to physical factors on the roads themselves.”

The quarterly survey also asked what age group do you think are the worst for speed and 88% opted for the 17 to 24 year group. Eighty per cent of those interviewed in this age group believed they were the worst for speeding.

When asked what age group was worst for fatal and serious injury accidents, 82% of the total panel again said the 17-24 year olds; 78 per cent of this age group also agreed they were the worst for fatal and serious injury accidents.

Residents were also asked what driver behaviour annoys them the most and tailgating and driving too close came out well ahead with 42%. Dangerous overtaking followed at 8%; drivers using mobile phones, 6%; driving too slowly, 6%; not indicating 5%; and cutting in at 4%.

There was bad news on the standards of driving in the county. Nearly one third thought that standards of driving were dropping, 56% thought they were about the same and just 9% thought they were improving.

Support for cameras remained high with 81% of those questioned strongly agreeing or agreeing that safety cameras should be supported as a method of reducing casualties. Just one fifth of the panel thought there were too many speed cameras in the county.

More than half of the panel (58%) said the presence of safety cameras had made them change the way they drive.

End

Contact: Kevin Tea 01768 217791

Tuesday 18 July, 2006

“Killer Commute” Periods Claim More Lives

“Killer Commute” Periods Claim More Lives
Take Care Driving To & From Work Urged

People taking more care when driving too and from work would dramatically reduce the number of people being killed and seriously injured on the county’s roads, Cumbria Safety Cameras report.

Accident statistics for the first six months of the year, in which 15 people died and a further 85 have been seriously injured, show distinct peaks between 8 and 9am and 5pm and 6pm. These are supported by figures for the previous 10 years.

Kevin Tea, Communications Manager for Cumbria Safety Cameras stated: “Figures for the first half of the year show that key commuting times confirm the greatest number of accidents. The figures are consistent for every month so it is not a phenomenon of the winter months.”

The “Killer Commute” theory is further enhanced by the fact that most accidents occur on A Class national speed limit routes linking the major commercial centres within Cumbria.

“While we might expect early morning collisions to be caused by drivers who are still half asleep or late for work, the high incidence of serious crashes in the afternoon is a little harder to explain,” Tea continued.

Major contributory factors in the collisions include failing to look properly before making a manoeuvre, failing to judge the path and speed of the other vehicle, driver in a hurry and driving too fast for the conditions.

Tea added: “Our analysis shows that the vast majority of collisions are down to driver error so the claim that we have ‘killer roads’ doesn’t hold water; we have careless drivers who are to blame.

“In two other prominent categories – loss of control and careless, reckless or in a hurry – excessive or inappropriate speed was again a contributory factor and because the majority of drivers who died in 2005 were local we must assume that complacency on familiar roads was a further feature,” Tea added.

End

Wednesday 12 July, 2006

New CSC Campaign Profiles Professional Drivers

Professional drivers and their employers are being reminded of their responsibilities for safe driving in a new campaign being launched by Cumbria Safety Cameras.

The Speeding It’s Bad For Business initiative is reminding all motorists from those who use company cars through to multi-drop van drivers and HGV drivers of the need to keep to speed limits in an effort to drive down fatal and serious injury accidents in the county.

Kevin Tea, Communications Manager for Cumbria Safety Cameras said:” Both sides have a responsibility to ensure drivers can carry out their business without having to resort to exceeding the speed limits. We know time is money, but the human cost of accidents and the expense of repairing damaged vehicles is too high if employees are involved in a crash.”

A leaflet explaining the responsibilities of employers to their work force is being distributed to companies in a mailshot and via a county business magazine. Incorporated into this are the hidden costs to vehicles via wear and tear and the benefits of cutting speeding such as cheaper insurance premiums, lower fuel bills and a drop in stress among employees with less sick leave taken.

The leaflet also has a tear off section for employees with top tips to help them keep their speed in check. Additional copies of this section are available on request if employers wish to distribute them to their workforce.

Tea continued: “While we appreciate that not all HGV drivers exceed the speed limit, this sector is causing some concern. Speed monitoring of the A686 between Penrith and Langwathby showed that more than half of HGVs were driven over 50mph when their limit is 40mph. On the A69 at Low Row in North Cumbria where there have been a number of fatal accidents over the past 12 months, the fastest HGV was recorded at 64mph.

“Over the last 3 years HGVs have been involved in 35 fatal, 132 serious and 812 slight injury accidents in Cumbria, and while we are not having a witch hunt against these drivers, we need to address the concerns these figures raise,” he added.

End

Contact: Kevin Tea 01768 217791

Thursday 08 June, 2006

Schedules and News Now Via RSS

Internet users can now download the latest news stories and schedules from the Cumbris Safety Cameras web site via a RSS feed.

To access RSS feeds the first thing you need is something called a news reader. This is a piece of software that checks RSS feeds and lets you read any new articles that have been added to them. There are many different versions, some of which are accessed using a browser, and some of which are downloadable applications. Browser-based news readers let you catch up with your RSS feed subscriptions from any computer, whereas downloadable applications let you store them on your main computer, in the same way that you either download your e-mail using Outlook, or keep it on a web-based service like Hotmail.

Once you have chosen a news reader, all you have to do is to decide what content you want to receive in your news reader, by finding and subscribing to the relevant RSS feeds indicated by an orange button that sometimes has RSS or XML on it.

If you have a PDA such as an iPAQ you can use a RSS reader such as NewsBreak from Ilium.

The URL is: http://www.cumbriasafetycameras.org/csc.rss

Tuesday 02 May, 2006

RoadSafe 2006

RoadSafe is again being held this year at Carlisle Racecourse. The event will be open to the public from 10am on Sunday 23rd July 2006.

There will be an entry fee of £3 per adult and £1 for children. Children under 5 will be free. There is plenty of free parking. Each paying individual or family will receive a free programme, which contains a programme of events through out the day, hints and tips on safer riding/driving and adverts for local firms.

There will be a large selection of motorcycle dealers, local car dealers and owners clubs (both bikes and cars).

Various Training Companies will be represented as well as The Institute of Advanced Motorists.

All the Emergency Services will be represented and there will be a display of Police Cars and Motorcycles, including surrounding Forces.
The main attractions on the day will be :-
The Red Devils Parachute Display Team
The Globe of Death (Motorcycle Stunt Team)
Monster Trucks
Extreme Motorcycle Trials Display Team
Drag Bikes and Cars
Children’s Entertainment (Kids Quads, Bouncy Castle, Face Painting etc)
Plus many more

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