Report Shames Killer Gatsos

Hundreds of speed cameras are useless at improving road safety and could be removed - that's the startling admission from the Government. A Department for Transport (DfT) report has revealed that casualties increased, rather than decreased, at 245 different Gatso locations over the last three years.

Auto Express Car Reviews

23rd June 2004

The B4051 Park Row in Bristol was one of the locations where the total number of deaths and serious injuries increased after the installation of a camera. The average was 12.3 per year before the Gatso was introduced, but the figure has leapt to 20 since. Likewise, the number of casualties on the A511 in Swadlincote, Derbyshire, more than doubled - from three to seven a year - after a camera was installed.

The bad news was released on the same day, but with less fanfare, as Transport Secretary Alistair Darling announced that 100 lives a year were being saved by the presence of thousands of Gatsos across the UK.

"Most sites have achieved good results," he said. "We will be asking the partnerships where the results were not as good to see what more could be done to achieve the greatest casualty reductions."