Yet more BB on Speeding

From todays Scotsman (31st May 06)

Catching the speeders other cameras can't
EBEN HARRELL
DRIVERS who speed on narrow or remote roads will no longer be able to escape
detection, after a Scottish force launched its latest tool to catch those
who break the limit - a motorcycle equipped with a speed camera.

Launched by Lothian and Borders Police, the system will use VHS video
technology and lacks the tell-tale flash of fixed cameras. Many motorist
will not know they have been caught until they receive a penalty notice,
police say.

The Honda 650 Deauville will be able to monitor narrow roads inaccessible to
speed camera vans. It will target speeding motorists on remote roads in the
Borders and narrow roads in Edinburgh.

Police can use mobile speed traps only after two accidents involving deaths
or serious injuries over a 5km stretch of road.

Colin McNeil, manager of the Lothian and Borders Safety Camera Partnership,
said there were many sites that qualified for monitoring but were accessible
only to motorbikes.

He said: "The vans are just too big to be used safely [at many sites] as
they could cause an obstruction. The motorbike is an ideal solution."

A spokesman for Lothian and Borders Police said the new trap would use more
advanced technology than fixed speed cameras. "

The motorbike uses a continuous VHS tape so motorists won't get flashed.
Drivers may not know they have been detected speeding until the penalty
notice drops through the letterbox."

But the move has angered a Scottish road safety group, which said it
infringes civil liberties and would do little to reduce road deaths.

Paul Smith, founder of Inverness-based SpeedSafe, which lobbies against
speed cameras, said: "There is certainly a civil liberty issue about this
new technology. But, more importantly, it's just another addition to a road
safety policy that is clearly failing.

"What we want to see is road deaths going down and that is exactly what we
are not seeing.

"We should be focusing resources not on enforcing rules but on strengthening
driver skills, attitudes and responsibility."

McK.


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