‘Yellow vultures’ come out on top for cutting speed

Transport Correspondent

Sunday 7 August 2011

ROAD safety charities have called for average speed cameras to be installed on more routes in Scotland after figures show they have been hugely successful in controlling speed and maintaining safety on one of the country's biggest motorway engineering projects.

'Yellow vulture' speed cameras, top, helped reduce speeding during the roadworks on the M80, above

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Exclusive by Damien Henderson Transport Correspondent

Over the past 21 months the use of “yellow vultures”, as they have been dubbed, has led to just 213 motorists – fewer than three per week – being fined or prosecuted after speeding on an eight-mile stretch of the M80 between Glasgow and Stirling, figures disclosed to the Sunday Herald show. More than 30million vehicle journeys would have been made along the stretch of road during that time.

Unlike conventional cameras, the “average speed” system calculates a motorist’s speed between two points with the use of automatic number plate recognition technology – meaning drivers can’t simply slow down to within the speed limit while passing the camera.A set of 14 of these cameras were installed in October 2009 to help enforce a 40mph limit between Mollinsburn and Haggs as part of a £320 million scheme to upgrade the entire route to motorway standard. They were removed last month as the restrictions were lifted on all but a small southbound section.Their apparent success in reducing speeding has bolstered the case for their deployment on other routes to help achieve Scotland’s ambitious target of cutting road deaths by 40% by the end of the decade, campaigners say, with the A9 cited as a road that could benefit from their use.It follows similar claims made about “yellow vultures” used on a 32-mile stretch of the A77 from 2005 which, according to crash data for the first four years they were used, led to 60% fewer fatal accidents and 40% fewer serious injuries a year.The Strathclyde Safety Camera Partnership, which administered the cameras on the M80, said that 158 motorists had agreed to pay conditional fines of £60 – totalling nearly £10,000 – and a further 55 had been referred to procurators-fiscal for possible prosecution.The reasons for prosecution are not known for each case, but typically involve drivers who refuse to pay a fine, do not live in the UK, have nine points on their licence already or are driving at speeds so high that a fine would be considered inappropriate.A spokesMAN for Strathclyde Safety Camera Partnership said: “This low number of offenders highlights that compliance with the reduced speed limit was good and that the majority of motorists recognised the need to slow down within the roadworks for everyone’s safety.” However, sources involved with the project admit that some motorists have been able to escape sanction while speeding by joining the motorway for a short section and then exiting before being picked up by a second camera, though it is unclear how widespread such abuses have been.Kevin Clinton, head of road safety at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, said that drivers who exceeded the speed limit in average camera zones tended to stand out as most obeyed it.He said: “I do think there is a case for their use elsewhere. They work best on routes that are long distance and with few junctions, where they are a better option than fixed speed cameras. Certainly on A-roads with higher crash rates there is a good case for installing them.”But he said they would not be appropriate on all roads where there was a high accident rate.He said: “There is an issue about the number of junctions. If drivers can pull off before they reach the second camera they may have less effect.”Peter Rodger, chief driving examiner at the Institute of Advanced Motorists, said the A9 would be a good candidate for use of average speed cameras.He said: “It’s the experience elsewhere in the UK, including the A77, that average speed cameras produce a very high level of compliance and a very low level of prosecution. Which is a way of saying they achieve exactly what they set out to achieve.”A spokeswoman for Transport Scotland, the government agency with responsibility for motorways and trunk roads, said it would consider the use of average speed cameras on a “case by case” basis but had already agreed to their use when constructing the Forth Replacement Crossing, due to be completed by 2016.“Average speed cameras are one of a number of safety measures we keep under consideration in our efforts to reduce casualties on our roads network,” she said. “Transport Scotland acknowledges the benefit of the average speed camera system on the M80 Stepps to Haggs Scheme. “The contractor has confirmed that average traffic speeds were significantly reduced following the installation of the camera system, leading to much improved compliance with the temporary 40mph speed limit, imposed for safety reasons during the works.”

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‘Yellow vultures’ come out on top for cutting speed

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