The latest figures, released by the Home Office in response to a parliamentary question make interesting reading. They show the staggering extent of the increase in fines and gave a regional breakdown, highlighting how - in some parts of the country - speeding fines have increased more than tenfold.
In 1997, motorists incurred 712,000 fines at £40 each, making them liable to pay out an estimated £28.5 million.
In 2000, the government increased the level of fixed-penalty notices for speeding to £60.
In 2005, the most recent year for which the figures are available, 1.92 million fines were issued at £60 each, costing motorists an estimated £115.2 million.
Locally here in Cumbria the figure for 2005 was a staggering 27441 tickets compared to the1995 total of 4882.
Road deaths have fallen only fractionally over the period during which speeding tickets have increased and cameras proliferated. Some 3,172 people were killed on the roads in 2006, a fall of only seven per cent from 1998.
The Department for Transport insisted that speed cameras do not raise additional revenue for central government. The money is collected by the court service and passes through the DfT to the safety camera partnerships.
A spokesman said: "Safety cameras are there to save lives, not make money. The best safety camera is the one which takes no fines at all, but succeeds in making everyone slow down.
1 comment:
Safety cameras my ar$e. I seem to get the impression that if I drive safely at 1mph above the speed limit I am classed as dangerouse but I can drink 10 pints of beer and as long as I drive past one less than the speed limit then thats safe.
They are a government money box. They work for speeding but there is morew to unsafe driving than speeding and these cameras dont detect drunk drivers or stolen cars.
Dont get me going on this as I will be ranting all day
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