New speed cameras to make road safer
WORK has begun on installing average speed cameras on the road between Southport and Preston in a bid to cut speeding and save lives.
The cameras will soon be monitoring drivers along the Tarleton Bypass, on the A565 Southport New Road between the B5246 at Mere Brow and the Gravel Lane roundabout at Banks.
It is one of eight accident blackspots in the county being targeted by Lancashire police and Lancashire Road Safety Partnership in a £2,150,000 project.
In the past six years, 13 people have died on these roads. There have also been 406 casualties with 62 people suffering serious or life changing injuries since 2011.
The cameras use number plate recognition technology to detect vehicles and calculate their average speed between two points of a known fixed distance apart.
Drivers caught going too fast face £100 fixed penalty notices plus three points on their driving licenses, with those guilty of higher speeds being summoned to court.
Police say there will be “minimal traffic disruption” including some overnight lane closures and temporary signals over the coming weeks.
Signs will be erected to inform drivers that they are entering an average speed control zone.
Lancashire police will release further information with motorists before the average speed cameras go live.
Lancashire Constabulary’s Assistant Chief Constable, Tim Jacques, said: “Our primary aim is for all drivers to adhere to the speed limit on our roads, therefore reducing the risk of collisions and making our roads safer for all to use.
“It is well documented that speeding does kill, but we know that a combination of education, enforcement and engineering solutions can save lives and reduce the number of people seriously injured on the county’s roads.
“Using average speed cameras is just one way that can help us achieve further steps ‘Towards Zero Lancashire’ – preventing all collisions that result in death and serious injury.”
Research by the RAC Foundation showed that the numbers of fatal and serious collisions decreases by around a third after average speed cameras are introduced.
Research will be conducted on the eight routes to review speed data, traffic flow and casualty information to see how well the new cameras are working.
Clive Grunshaw, Police and Crime Commissioner for Lancashire said: “In an ideal world drivers would observe the speed limit and we would never have speed related casualties and deaths; but we all know that that is not the case.
“Evidence shows that speed is often a factor in road deaths and serious collisions, so these measures should help to save lives.”