Rash or negligent driving cannot not be spared at any cost, especially at places where drivers should drive extra cautiously, places flocked with pedestrians or extremely congested areas should be under a strict shadowing as they add to road fatalities and all this should be put to functioning using avant-garde technology.
Somewhat same is the thought shared by an influential road safety group in UK, according to the group there is an emergent need for deployment of hundreds of speed cameras to help impose the new urban speed limit which has been cut down to just 20mph.
The group also demands a crack down on drivers who are more likely to cause trouble; the list includes hefty drivers who look more prone to drowsiness, elderly drivers who no longer have their senses responding at the fullest and cannot be considered safe drivers.
The Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety- the advisory to the MPs and the Government has also mentioned that the local authorities should use digital cameras capable of measuring speed over a set distance and help enforce the 20mph limit. The new adoption will also help in making the cameras which record the car speed at a single point, responsible for catching thousands of drivers at road works on motorways, obsolete.
A home office approval to operate at lower speed level is only the requirement which needs to be fulfilled before you will see the installation of this new doodad and according to the report the government should put this one on their priority list.
The installation of this new safety measure will surely be of great help for the enforcement of the speed limit and ensuring the decline in the number of the road causalities. The advisory council also asks for more 20 mph zones for the built-up areas and the setting up of targets to bring down the road deaths to half of the present number of fatalities.
The Report cited:
One significant impediment to lowering speed limits and expanding the 20mph network is that, at present, standard cameras are not type-approved to enforce limits below 30mph.
Presently speed breakers and chicanes are the most common of all the restraints deployed but these also cause problems for emergency vehicles and add to the emissions and according to the report the cameras will be a more suitable and effective alternate for the above.
The department for transportation adds that it is now upon local councils to adopt these new tools and enforce the 20 mph zones and the government to grant approval to the camera equipment.
The report also made it known that the children living in some poor neighborhoods are five times more likely to be hit in the road accidents and the government will have to tackle poverty first. The report also makes clear that the drivers who have an inactive lifestyle are more likely to cause an accident.
And for the increasing number of elderly drivers in UK, their increased frailty and potentially declining capabilities are adding up to some serious road safety troubles.
The report suggests that beyond 2010 all the new residential developments should have a compulsory pint of milk test that weather a resident can reach a shop for a pint of milk in less than ten minutes without any vehicle.
[Via: DailyMail]
