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Motoring fines cost us £87.4 million a year, but roads still no safer

Jessica Bown
Jul 10th 2010 at 6:00AM

Filed under: Taxes, Families

UK drivers paid fines of £87,368,227 for speeding and red light offences during the financial year 2008-09, new figures show.

But the road casualty rate has declined at a slower rate since speed cameras were introduced in the early 1990s than it did between 1978 and 1990, indicating that the alleged safety benefits of the cameras are exaggerated.

Most UK motorists, no matter how carefully they drive, have been hit with a fine for a driving offence of some kind at least once.

The government argues that the controversial penalties help to keep our roads safe.

But many people feel that the real reason speed cameras are so popular is that they bring in a huge amount of revenue for the state.

These beliefs are supported by a new report from the TaxPayers' Alliance and the Drivers' Alliance, which indicates that while the penalties do boost the government's coffers by many millions every year, the safety benefits these controls are supposed to provide are harder to see.

The £87,368,227 total given above includes £65,748,850 from fixed penalties detected by cameras operated in England and Wales, £19,214,594 in fines from magistrates' courts for speeding offences and neglect of traffic directions in England and Wales and £1,641,630 collected for speeding offences by the Scottish Courts in 2008-09.

It also includes £763,153 from fixed penalties detected by speed cameras in Northern Ireland.

But the massive revenues brought in due to cameras on the roads are not matched by improvements in road safety, the TaxPayers' Alliance and Drivers' Alliance claim.

In fact, the pressure groups estimate that 1,555,244 more road casualties occurred between 1991, when speed cameras were introduced in Britain, and 2007 than would have done if the road safety policy followed between 1978 and 1990 had continued.

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "Motorists have long suspected that speed cameras are more about raising money than keeping the roads safe.

"These findings show that the state has been squeezing a fortune out of people using these cameras, but if anything the rate of reduction in casualty numbers has slowed."

They are therefore calling for a policy change that sees the rest of the country following the example set by Swindon, where speed cameras were scrapped in 2008 with no apparent increase in road casualties as a result.

Peter Roberts, chief executive of the Drivers' Alliance, said: "Speed cameras have been a false hope in improving safety on British roads.

"We therefore believe that it is time to rethink road safety policy so that it has broadened focus, not solely based on speed."

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