by Sarah Shaffi

sshaffi@thekmgroup.co.uk

Speed cameras placed at crash hotspots are saving lives.

According to the Kent and Medway Safety Camera Partnership, accidents where people were killed or badly hurt have decreased by two thirds in the last three years.

From 2006 to 2008 38 people were killed or seriously injured on roads where the partnership has cameras, compared to 111 at the same locations for the three years before the cameras were installed.

The biggest decrease in serious accidents is along the A228 Grain road.

In the three years before the camera was installed in 2007 there were 14 accidents which resulted in fatalities of serious injuries. Since 2007, there have been three.

The partnership’s communications officer Katherine Barrett said: “All cameras are placed where they will save lives and these latest figures for Medway show beyond any doubt that they are making our roads a safer place.

“Where you see a yellow fixed camera, it means there have been three or more accidents where people have been killed or seriously injured over a 1km stretch in the three years before the camera was installed.

“Our safety camera vans operate at sites where at least one person has been killed or seriously injured in a speed-related crash.”

The partnership aims to reduce the number of fatalities by deterring drivers from speeding through education and enforcement.

Latest figures for 2008 show more than 33,400 speeding tickets were issued to motorists across Kent and Medway, but the partnership says drivers are slowing down and the number of tickets being issued is falling.

Medway has a mix of Gatso, Truvelo and Traffiphot cameras. Gatso cameras use radar to detect the speed of passing vehicles while Truvelo and Traffiphot use sensors embedded in the road. Safety camera vans also operate from a number of sites across the area.