ABD - Wales

Croeso i Cymru

This page looks at driving issues common to the whole of Wales, for example those pertaining to the Welsh Assembly. For local issues pertaining to a particular county, or to a particular police force area, please refer to the separate local pages as signposted on the right.

You can translate this page to Welsh using the Google Translate box at the bottom of the page. (We translated this paragraph using Google; it's probably awful. Blame them not us.)
Cewch gyfieithu y dudalen hon i Cymru yn defnyddio blwch Cyfieithu Google ar waelod y dudalen. (Rydym yn cyfieithu y paragraff hwn yn arfer Google; mae'n debyg iawn. Nad Blame eu ni.)

ABD Regional co-ordinator: Email

2006-07-02
Wales: 'Speed Camera Centre of UK'
A survey by Philips has found Wales to be the worst area of the UK for speed camera fines. This will come as no surprise to anyone who regular drives a significant distance in Wales and sees a speed camera van lurking on virtually every trip, whilst proper policemen are conspicuous by their absence.

“Wales is the speed camera centre of the UK. Mid and South Wales comes second only to London for raising money through fines. And North Wales raises more per resident than any other area.”

Stephen Mesquita, Philips

BBC — Speed camera fines reach £114.6m

Welsh Speed Camera Facts

Welsh motorists pay £10.6 million each year in fines.
Plus an estimated £2.2 million in increased insurance premiums.
There are almost 190,000 speeding convictions in Wales each year.
Of those, 35% are the result of speed cameras.
Nearly 90% of penalised drivers had a clean licence when caught.
70% of Welsh drivers thought they had been driving safely when caught.
More than half said they believed speed cameras made people drive more erratically.
Over three-quarters felt the cameras made motorists less aware of hazards.
70% said they believed speed cameras were there to generate revenue.

Evening Post — Cameras Cost Welsh Drivers £13m a Year 2006-04-26

Road Casualties in Wales 1968–2003

This graph shows casualties on the roads of Wales for each year between 1968 and 2003.
Fatalities (red) and serious injuries (dark orange) have been reducing since the early 1970s, despite a growing population and increase in the number of cars registered. Slight injuries (light orange) have increased over this same period. Total casualties (yellow) are decreasing, but went up in 2002 for the first time since 1994.
Figures are not merely dependent upon the number of accidents; improvements in vehicle safety, better roads, medical treatment, and emergency response times all have a significant influence on figures. These are particularly likely to have caused the transfer of volumes from 'serious' injuries to 'slight' injuries.
Source: 2002 Road Accidents Wales

External Links:

National Assembly for Wales
- Assembly Members
- Local Statutory Instruments and Orders
  Includes notices of temporary and permanent speed limit reductions
- Statistics — 2002 Road Accidents Wales
- Traffic Wales
  Traffic information
- Transport Directorate
  Responsible for all motorways and trunk roads in Wales
- Welsh Transport Forum
Road Safety Council of Wales
Welsh Automotive Forum
‘The voice of the automotive industry in Wales’

Media Links:

Western Mail — Motorists pay price for petrol postcode lottery 2008-01-26
Western Mail — Are speed cameras more about cash than road safety? 2006-08-25
Western Mail — Hospitals making millions from visitors 2006-06-24
News Wales — Staggering rise in speed camera fines, say Tories 2006-03-01
Western Mail — 303 police caught speeding 2005-12-27
Wales on Sunday — Sped Cars 2005-12-10
Western Mail — Penalty points stack up on our licences 2005-11-30
More than a quarter of Welsh drivers now have at least 3 points on their driving licence.
BBC — Rural Roads 'Being Left to Rot' 2005-08-10
BBC — Campaign For Next-of-Kin Numbers 2005-08-05
icWales — Welsh car team pioneer electric dream 2005-06-01
Daily Post — Speeders fined £10.6m in Wales 2005-02-14
Western Mail — Campaign wants brakes on 4X4s 2005-01-21
Anti 4x4 nutters pick on Wales
BBC — M4 relief road plan unveiled 2004-12-07
Western Mail — Road toll activist calls on Zeta 2004-08-31
BBC — Tractors urged to 'pull over' 2004-06-25
Daily Post — Drivers fume as fuel hits 13-year high 2004-05-07
Daily Post — Speed cameras now raise £13m in fines 2004-04-05
BBC — 'End Severn tolls' call 2003-11-14
BBC — Rural anger over 4x4 tax call 2003-09-10
ContractJournal — Welsh road repair backlog to cost £1bn 2003-08-28
‘The poor state of non-trunk roads was made worse because local authorities did not always spend their highway repairs budget on the works’
BBC — Drink-drive figures show rise 2003-01-09
BBC — Welsh dragon allowed on car plates 2001-12-28

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