Skip to main content

Brake speaks out to support UK motorway speed cameras

Responding to reports that the UK Highways Agency is to roll out speed cameras on stretches of ‘smart’ motorways, road safety charity Brake has spoken in support of the proposal. Julie Townsend, deputy chief executive, Brake, the road safety charity, said: "Speed cameras are an extremely well evidenced, cost-effective way to improve safety and reduce deaths and injuries on roads where they are placed, preventing families going through the trauma of a sudden bereavement or life-changing injury. Put simpl
February 4, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
Responding to reports that the 1841 UK Highways Agency is to roll out speed cameras on stretches of ‘smart’ motorways, road safety charity 4235 Brake has spoken in support of the proposal.

Julie Townsend, deputy chief executive, Brake, the road safety charity, said: "Speed cameras are an extremely well evidenced, cost-effective way to improve safety and reduce deaths and injuries on roads where they are placed, preventing families going through the trauma of a sudden bereavement or life-changing injury. Put simply: speed cameras reduce speeding, which helps to prevent deadly crashes. Breaking the speed limit is risky and illegal, so only drivers who break the law will face fines."

The cameras are to be installed as part of the UK Highways Agency Digital Enforcement Camera System (HADECS 3) managed motorway project to support the implementation of mandatory variable speed limits on selected motorways, in an effort to keep traffic flowing and increasing motorway capacity. Police already have the powers to enforce the 70 mph motorway speed limit.

Related Content

  • Texas roll-out for Inrix and Drivewyze
    July 5, 2024
    Partnership with Texas DoT will deliver real-time traffic slowdown alerts to truck drivers
  • Taking the long view of ITS
    March 24, 2015
    Caroline Visser believes the ITS industry must present a coherent case for consideration of the technology to become part of transport policy and planning. As ITS advisor and road finance director for the International Road Federation (IRF) in Geneva, Caroline Visser is well placed to evaluate quantifying the benefits of ITS implementation – a topic about which there is little agreement and even less consistency. She is pressing to get some consistency in the evaluation of ITS deployments through the use of
  • Australia's ground breaking average speed enforcement
    February 1, 2012
    The speed enforcement system on the Hume Highway in Australia combines both spot and point-to-point solutions. Here, Redflex's Peter Whyte discusses its implementation. The Australian State of Victoria has achieved notable success in reducing casualty rates since launching a three-pronged road accident prevention initiative in the late-1980s.
  • Nine in 10 people want tougher sentences for drivers who kill
    July 11, 2016
    A study to mark the launch of Brake’s new Roads to Justice Campaign shows there is huge support for strengthening both the charges and sentences faced by criminal drivers. Ninety-one per cent of people questioned agreed that if someone causes a fatal crash when they get behind the wheel after drinking or taking drugs, they should be charged with manslaughter. That carries a possible life sentence. At present people can either be charged with causing death by dangerous driving or causing death by careless