Research shows that speed awareness courses do not improve safety on roads
Speed awareness courses, as now proposed to be introduced in Scotland, do not work, despite what supporters argue. They have no impact on road casualties and negligible impact on vehicle speeds.
A research study commissioned by the Department for Transport, published last year, showed that there was no significant impact on road casualties from people attend- ing a National Speed Awareness Course (NSAC).
Was the study too small to produce statistically significant results? Not exactly, because the records of 2.2 million drivers, of whom 1.4m had accepted a course offer, were studied over a period of four years.
This data was linked to subsequent speed reoffending and involvement in collisions to produce the report’s conclusions. That’s a large sample. The only impact they found was that there was a minor reduction in reoffending after involvement in an NSAC. That is hardly surprising – drivers might simply take more care about speeding after being caught for one offence because you cannot be offered a second NSAC within three years. Alternatively, perhaps some drivers simply go out and purchase a device or software that warns them about cameras.
I had hoped that the reputation of the legal system in Scotland as being better than in England would halt this encouragement of the offer of bribes to the police to waive prosecution (a basic perversion of justice), but it seems not. We have documented the legalissuesandabusesthatare taking place on our campaign website at www.speed-awareness.org at great length and it shows how the police in England and Wales are using the system to generate cash to support their activities, often unrelated directly to road safety.
I have asked Advocate General James Wolffe to reconsider this issue and halt the introduction of speed awareness courses in Scotland, or at least ensure that the police do not receive any part of the fees paid by drivers to attend such courses so as to ensure that they do not focus on cash generation as opposed to road safety.
ROGER LAWSON Campaign Director The Alliance of British Drivers, PO
Box 62, Chislehurst