ABD - Durham

The Association of British Drivers
Local Issues — Durham

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Durham Constabulary is one of the few UK police forces which does not particpate in a 'safety camera partnership' racket.
The force slogan is "Aiming for Excellence" which makes a pleasant change from "Aiming for Profit".
On their website, Durham Constabulary say:

"The design and condition of roads can have a significant impact on the number and severity of collisions."
"Driver error contributes to over 95% of collisions."

"The pro-camera lobby, and a lot of the safety partnerships, deliberately misquote the statistics to try and mislead people to try and justify their position. "I think it is disingenuous if we are really intent on reducing casualties on the road - as opposed to enforcing speed limits and dishing out lots of tickets."
"More accidents are caused by inattention, drink driving, or nowadays, more by driving under the influence of drugs. And these statistics adopted by certain forces show a woolly area regarding the proximity of speed cameras. Some statistics are taken from an area 20 metres from a camera and others from a two-kilometre radius.
"This force is not soft on speeding motorists. Our officers issue 7,000 speeding tickets a year. We adopt an intelligence-led approach by looking at persistent offenders and also targeting drink and drug driving and bad driving."
"Perhaps the Government should be held accountable for the fact that they have not agreed to fund the upgrading of the A66. That would save many more lives than speed cameras. The speed cameras issue is not a point of principle, it is a fact that they are pointless."

Paul Garvin, Chief Constable, Durham Constabulary, 2004
The Journal 2004-06-16

Fatalities in Durham Constabulary area 1:1

	68	56	48	38	35	52	47	36	44	33	23	27	42	42	32
	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004

Serious Injuries 1:4

	388	374	377	291	331	345	330	280	257	232	242	231	253	235	226
	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004

Slight Injuries 1:25

	2595	2400	2492	2498	2238	2484	2687	2754	2747	2381	2458	2444	2513	2501	2352
	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004

Source: National Statistics — Road Casualties in Great Britain

The 'safety' camera racketeers tried to gang up on Durham's Chief Constable in an attempt to bully him into joining their little scam. They eagerly seized on the fact that fatal accidents in Durham increased significantly between 2001 and 2002. Durham Constabulary stated that this was a merely a statistical blip, a claimed later proved by the reduction to 32 in 2004..

David Begg, chairman of the rapidly dis-integrating transport commission, was just one who cherry picked the 2001–2002 statistics for Durham & North Wales to 'prove' that speed cameras work in a letter to the Times. What, you may ask, have speed cameras got to do with 'integrated transport' policy? Nothing at all — Begg's letter merely proves what we already know — that the 'Integrated Transport Commission' is nothing but a front for government anti-car policy.

As our graphs show, the number of fatal accidents in 2002 was in fact less than in 1995, 96, & 98; and injury accidents remain lower than 1996–98.

Reductions in all categories in 2004 prove that you don't need speed cameras to reduce accidents.

"Exceeding the speed limit related to just 60 collisions per year out of a total of 1,900 collisions in the Durham area — that’s about 3%."

Paul Garvin, Chief Constable, Durham Constabulary, 2003
Sunday Times 2003-11-23

Press articles on some of the fatal accidents in 2002:

BBC — Two women killed in car crash 2002-12-02
BBC — Woman dies in Durham crash 2002-09-12
BBC — Man admits causing Leonie's death 2002-08-05
BBC — 'Drug driving' deaths plague North East 2002-07-30
BBC — Inquiry into fatal police crash 2002-06-05

Saddler Street, Durham.
Photo courtesy of Grzegorz Wardzinski

Saddler Street
Durham's silly little toll road scheme has become a disaster for local traders who are forced to pay Ł2 whenever they have to deliver anything to their shops. The road in question is a narrow cul-de-sac and the only road leading to the promontory upon which the cathedral sits. Map

No-one is going to drive down this road unless they are intending to visit a shop, business, or resident on the promontory. The toll isn't about reducing congestion, it's about raking in money — only the plan isn't working. Council estimates of how many drivers would still use the road have proven to be hopelessly wrong after most drivers decided to boycott the tolls.
Shuttle buses set up by the council have become something of a running joke.

It is extremely rare to see any passengers on the shuttle buses.

Roger Cornwell, chairman of the City of Durham Trust

Elsewhere on the ABD website:

Solicitors
Speed Cameras in Durham (There aren't any!)
PR336 — Drivers Welcome A66 Improvements

External Links:

Durham County Council
- Durham City's Toll Road
- Travel
Durham Constabulary
- Road Policing Strategy
- Speed Enforcement
  "You don’t have to be exceeding the speed limit to be driving at an inappropriate speed."

Media Links:

Evening Gazette — Road chief in hotseat 2006-01-19
Hartlepool Mail — Policeman fined for speeding 2005-09-08
Durham copper disputes speeding ticket issued by Cleveland Police. Wonderful things speed cameras aren't they? — Now we have the police fighting each other instead of crime.
BBC — Force's police chief to step down 2005-07-01
The Scotsman — Bellamy Dismisses Climate Change Fears 2004-12-20
The Journal — Police Chief's Attack 2004-06-16
The Journal — Camera-shy Stevens 2004-02-13
Evening Chronicle (Letters) — Save us from motoring fines madness 2004-01-17
Don't worry Mrs Douglas, we're on the case!
The Journal — Speed camera row finds new angles 2003-12-11
Daily Telegraph — 'Speed cameras don't save lives' 2003-12-07
Daily Telegraph — They don't work, says chief constable 2003-11-28
N.B. Their line "Road deaths have fallen consistently, from nearly 400 in 1995 to 295 in 2002" is wrong, these are KSI figures. Which is exactly the confusion the government seek by their use of KSI figures.
Sunday Times — Speeding fines: There's gold in them there speed cameras 2003-11-23
BBC — Speed Camera Stance Defended 2003-09-01
BBC — Firms Hit by Toll Road Charge 2003-01-24
BBC — Toll Bus Attracts Few Passengers 2003-01-23
BBC — Toll Road Cash Shortfall 2003-11-18
Adjacent local areas
BBC — Drivers Charged to Cut Congestion 2003-10-01
BBC — Durham Proposes Tax on Carrier Bags 2002-12-18
Nothing to do with driving, everything to do with loony councils.
Durham 21 — Is Durham City Centre really worth two pounds? 2002-10-18
A student's view.
BBC — County Cuts Winter Road Gritting 2002-09-30