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Strathclyde Safety Camera Partnership is one of eight safety camera partnerships operating in Scotland under the auspices of the Scottish Safety Camera Programme, a personal injury crash/casualty reduction initiative sponsored by the Justice Department of the Scottish Government.

Partnership membership comprises: Strathclyde Police, Transport Scotland and all the local authorities in the area - North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire, Argyll & Bute, East Dunbartonshire, West Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, East Ayrshire, North Ayrshire, South Ayrshire and Glasgow City.

The Partnership operates a combination of fixed, mobile, average speed and red light safety camera sites throughout the west of Scotland.

Safety Camera sites
All sites must comply with the rules of the Scottish Safety Camera Programme .   There are strict criteria to be met for selection of safety camera sites, which include: a serious crash/casualty history; evidence of prevalent speeding/red light running and there being no viable alternative road engineering solutions available.  Roads authorities and police must also agree that speed/traffic signal enforcement by safety camera is practical at the location and likely to be effective in reducing crashes/casualties.  These rules ensure that the resource is targeted most effectively on the proven areas of greatest need.

Cameras helping to reduce personal injury crashes
Driver behaviour is seen to be the over-riding cause of crashes, with actions such as lack of attention, driving too close and bad overtaking all being common faults. However, speed remains a major contributory factor in crashes and the link with excessive speed increases in line with the severity of injuries sustained by the people involved.   Safety cameras have a clear role in discouraging drivers from speeding in areas where there has already been a history of crashes involving death or serious injury.  

Comparing the figures for west of Scotland roads between 2000/01 and 2005/06, there has been a reduction of 15% in Personal Injury collisions (PICs) and a fall of 28% in Killed/Serious Injury (KSI) collisions.   At locations in the same area where fixed or mobile speed cameras are operating , there is an even greater decline to be seen over the same period with camera sites recording drops of 45% in PICs and 68% in KSIs.

While it would not be claimed that cameras are solely responsible for the improvement in accident reduction, there can be little doubt that they are having a significant effect on road safety.

Personal Injury Collisions
Graph showing % drop in Personal Injury Collisions since 2000 at camera sites and on Strathclyde roads as a whole.

Killed/Serious Injury Accidents
Graph showing % drop in Killed/Serious Injury Accidents since 2000 at camera sites and on Strathclyde roads as a whole.

Deterring - not catching, speeders
The purpose of safety cameras is to reduce the number of personal injury crashes by deterring drivers from driving too fast.   All fixed camera installations and mobile camera enforcement vehicles are visible to drivers, have conspicuous markings and are accompanied by warning signage and sometimes vehicle-activated signs.  

There has been a 57% drop in the annual number of speeding offenders at camera sites in Strathclyde between 2003/04 and 2006/07 - a clear sign that drivers are getting the message.

In addition all safety camera sites are published - see the Strathclyde Safety Camera website for locations and other details: www.strathclydecameras.com.