[ABD Logo] Supporting the Boston Bypass Campaign The Association of British Drivers
Local Issues — Lincolnshire
ABD Local co-ordinator: Email  

 


ABD Lincolnshire Message Board
Run by our Lincolnshire Local Co-ordinator, these pages give up to the minute details on what's happening in Lincolnshire, and allow you to contribute.
2007-08-23
ABD Condemns Political Speed Limit Proposed For A52
Lincolnshire County Council are proposing to reduce the speed limit on the A52 between Boston and Skegness for political reasons, namely to 'discourage traffic'. Full details in our press release: We ask all drivers to object against the whole traffic order, in writing,:
 
Heading: (A 52, Boston to Skegness)(Various Speed Limit Amendments) Order20.
 
Address: R A Wills
Director for Development
for attention of Lynne Brown
Traffic Orders Section
Lincolnshire County Council
4th Floor
City Hall
LINCOLN
LN1 1DN
 
Objections must be in by 29th August 2007.
 
 
ABD Campaigns for Better Road Safety in Lincolnshire
Keith Peat, a class 1 advanced driver, former police traffic officer, and now ABD Local Co-ordinator for Lincolnshire, is calling for more effective action on road safety in the county.
Camera Failure
The Lincolnshire Echo has discovered that 20 out of the county's 51 cameras have seen no drop in the number of accidents or casualties.
Before a speed camera was erected on the A52 at Haltoft End, near Friestonnot in 1998, not a single person had been 'killed or seriously injured' at the A52 spot. Since then 12 people have been 'killed or seriously injured'.

Police Now Stealing Cars
It appears that drivers in Lincolnshire should be more concerned about having their car stolen by the police than by criminals. Fanatical anti-car policy has taken another turn for the worse with the news that Lincolnshire Police have 'confiscated' (some people would say 'stolen') a car because a driver was alledgedly doing 50 in a 30 zone. Note we say alledgedly, because this case has not gone to court and the police action is thus totally unjustified and heavy-handed in the extreme.
Incited by a plethora of anti-car legislation from the world's most anti-car government, the police now clearly consider it acceptable to 'confiscate' property worth thousands of pounds, and threaten to pointlessly and spitefully destroy that property unless the owner hands over a wad of cash. A process which most people would refer to as extortion.
And they wonder why relations between the public and the police are at an all time low.

Another Illegal Speed Limit
A speeding prosecution has been thrown out of court after it was proved that the speed limit was illegal.
 
Driver Phil Walker was snapped by a speed camera exceeding a supposed 30mph speed limit on the A153 in Anwick. However, traffic regulation experts proved in court that the street lighting on the road was not sufficient to give the road 'restricted' status, and that insufficient signing meant that the claimed 30mph speed limit was illegal.
Other drivers who have been caught by this same camera should contact a solicitor, as they may have cause to have their fines and points returned.
Source: National Statistics — Road Casualties in Great Britain
No Reduction in Fatalities
 
Lincolnshire 'Road Safety' Partnership was set up in June 2000.
 
For the next 3 years deaths on Lincolnshire's roads increased significantly.
In 1999, fatalities had been unusually high at 104. This virtually guaranteed that fatalities would come down in 2000, enabling the rogues to claim that speed cameras had achieved this reduction. Sure enough they fell to 71 and the proganda machine went into overdrive, but then fatal accidents went up for 3 years. So much for speed cameras reducing accidents.
 
Lincolnshire was one of six English police forces chosen to participate in a government scheme to con the public into accepting speed cameras. As our 'Rigging the Evidence' page describes, they weren't the only area to have an unusually high number of accidents in 1999.
 
In 2004, fatalties returned to a level consistent with the majority of years over the last 12 years, indicating that speed cameras have failed to achieve any significant improvement in road safety where it really matters.
 
The number of serious injuries dropped significantly in 2003 and 2004, yet the number of slight injuries went up by a similar amount in 2003. Many factors play a part in determining the outcome of an accident, including vehicle safety, ambulance response times, medical care.
 
The total number of accidents in each year is not known.

 

This Gatso camera is on the A1 southbound just prior to the B6403 junction at Colsterworth about 6 miles south of Grantham. Although painted yellow, it is largely obscured by the sign, not to mention the overgrown foliage. This may have been the camera that snapped the ambulance driver. There is another Gatso a mile or so before this on the crest of a hill.
Map with location arrowed

At the bottom of Stubbock Hill on the A1 Northbound just north of the A52 junction west of Grantham, lurks a Truvelo forward facing camera. This is a long straight downhill stretch with excellent visibility. There is a farm entrance just beyond the camera, but it has sliproads. Installing amber warning lights on a sign saying "Tractor merging from left" that could be switched on when a tractor needed to pull out would be a far better, and less expensive, way of preventing any accidents here.
Map with location arrowed

On the northbound A1 on the approach to the Gonerby Moor (B1174) Roundabout north of Grantham lurks another Truvelo. They might claim this is to reduce speed for the roundabout, except look how far it is from the "Reduce Speed Now" signs for the roundabout.
Map with location arrowed
Mike Ferguson v The Rotten State of Britain
Serious damage caused to police credibility.
 
In October 2003, the Crown Prosecution Service dropped charges against West Yorkshire Ambulance Driver Mike Ferguson. Leaving the decision until less than a week before Ferguson was due to appear in court, the CPS backed off in the face of public pressure.
 
In what had become a public relations disaster, Lincolnshire Police were widely condemned after they took the obsession with 'speeding' to new depths. They charged an ambulance driver with 'speeding' after he was snapped doing 104 mph at 3:30 in the morning by a speed camera on the A1 dual carriageway near Grantham.
 
Ambulance driver Mike Ferguson was rushing a human liver from West Yorkshire to Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge for a vital transplant operation. He was in an official West Yorkshire Metropolitan Ambulance Service vehicle equipped with blue lights. Cambridgeshire Police rightly decided to take no action after one of their speed cameras snapped the ambulance, but Lincolnshire Police have clearly become so fixated by their beloved speed cameras that they have totally forgotten the concept of policing by consent.
 
Mr Ferguson is a senior ambulance driver with a 36 year unblemished record. After news of his persecution by Lincolnshire's finest broke, he was overwhelmed by messages of support from around the world.
 
The official view on emergency vehicles and speed cameras is given in this document by the Association of Chief Police Officers:
Road Policing Enforcement Technology Code of Practice [pdf 887k]
See section 16.4 on page 80.
 
Media articles re Mike Ferguson
 
General Media Links below.
 
 

 
The top ten primary causes of fatal and injury collisions in Lincolnshire during 2002
 
CauseQuantity% of 2732
1. Misjudged Speed / Distance35212.9%
2. Wrong Course / Position35012.8%
3. Turning Right2097.7%
4. Going Too Fast1967.2%
5. Dog in Carriageway1535.6%
6. Crossing Road Heedless of Traffic1284.7%
7. Overtaking Offside1043.8%
8. Injudiciously Emerging From Minor Road 742.7%
9. By Stationary Vehicles732.7%
10. Bend722.6%

Source: Lincolnshire Police
 
The figure of 7.2% for 'going to fast' is in line with the findings of TRL report 323, and completely at odds with the government's 'one third' lie. Unfortunately it seems that Lincolnshire Police have become so brain-washed by anti-speed hysteria, that even their own evidence isn't enough to stop them persecuting ambulance drivers.
 

 
TopElsewhere on the ABD website:
External Links:

TopMedia Links:


Top  ABD Home Page    Other Local Areas   Join   Contact