Villagers Want to Adopt Speed Camera

RobBrady

Pensioner Pat Ireland's husband Gordon was killed by a speeding driver in her village, Rooksbridge, Somerset, in 2008. She is now trying to persuade Somerset County Council not to mothball the speed camera which she believes contributes to the safety of her community.

The camera is reported to be the second highest earning speed camera in the country.

Mrs Ireland had already set up the "Lights For Life" charity with the intention of erecting new traffic lights in the village, but with the recent council spending cutbacks on speed cameras, she is now looking to use that money to keep the speed camera operational.

Her husband, who was 80, was killed by a car travelling at 57 miles per hour, almost double the local speed zone.

Speaking to the Weston Mercury, Mrs Ireland says that the villagers are quite prepared to pay to keep it and funds will be raised through charity events.

As to whether Avon and Somerset Police, who will be running the service from April 1st, will agree to such an initiative is open to question.
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Robert Brady

Guivre46 · Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2011 4:42 pm Post subject:

That's sad to hear of the death of her husband. So many people who lose a loved-one are determined it will not happen to anyone else.

I'm increasingly a fan of the idea of linking speed cameras to traffic lights. Whilst cameras may deter some, others are prepared to chance it, especially, as we are hearing, so many cameras are not active.
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DennisN

spook51 · Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2011 5:45 pm Post subject:

Presumably to save the lives of others in her village Dennis. Rooksbridge is on the A38, a straight, fairly wide road with (from memory) a 50mph limit at each end of the village.

Perhaps some drivers are missing the further step down to 30mph through the built up area hence why this camera is such a money-earner but (as has been said) it doesn't appear to have been a sucessful deterrent.

I imagine its income propped up the less profitable cameras in the Somerset Safety Partnership's stable.

DennisN · Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2011 6:17 pm Post subject:

I've driven that way many times - it's my preferred route home from SouthWest. A38 is not particularly wide in that area - for a former Trunk Road, indeed, it's only a single carriageway A road, overtaking is not easy anywhere from there right into Bristol! Great stretches of it are now 50mph, rather than NSL 60. I used to drive that route to Cornwall over 40 years ago, before M5 was even a twinkle in someone's eye, and it doesn't seem to have been improved since! The 30mph limit starts with a specially placed traffic island, vehicles narrowing through it, with all the extra road markings used these days. Anybody persisting in speeding after going through that deserves to be caught and the camera is a long way after the limit starts. But I'm surprised that it's the second biggest earner in the country - for a start, I'd say there are other places with a much higher traffic flow and in my own travels, I've not noticed any significantly high speeds there, plus the camera is well visible on the approach.

If indeed speed is a serious problem there, the easy and proper solution is a police car, completely justified (and funded) by the supposed high rate of speeding offences.
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Dennis

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spook51 · Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2011 7:22 pm Post subject:

The A38 through Rooksbridge (single carriageway as you rightly state Dennis) is wide enough for a central painted division at least a couple of feet wide through the village and beyond. The traffic islands are no wider than that i.e. they don't restrict the passage of traffic at all - this can be verified on Street View.

I would guess a rogue 'r' has crept into the word 'county'.

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