Turning a blind eye

From the Echo, first published Tuesday 21st Oct 2003.

SOME see it as an expression of opinion and others see it as plain vandalism.

But regardless of what is clearly a criminal act, frustrated drivers who vandalise speed cameras are unlikely to be "shopped" by fellow motorists, a survey has found.

Just under half of people questioned - 47 per cent - said they would be either not very likely or not at all likely to report offenders.

Fewer than a quarter of drivers would be "very likely" to report to police someone defacing a speed camera, the poll from the RAC Foundation and Autocar magazine found.

But while almost half say they wouldn't shop someone they saw wreck a camera, three out of four do not condone such vandalism.

Vandalism of speed cameras has already been seen locally following the torching of two traps in Bournemouth this month.

The first camera was set alight between County Gates and the Cambridge Road roundabout on the Wessex Way, while the second destroyed was positioned in Queen's Park Avenue.

Each speed camera costs £35,000 when loaded with film and this rises to £60,000 for new digital versions.

Now representatives in the county are looking into national plans to install CCTV cameras to identify those who vandalise speed cameras. The cameras would be placed beside the speed traps to curb the growing number of attacks which has already seen 700 cameras across the country burnt, pulled down or their lenses spray-painted to blind them.

Sarah Townsend from Dorset Safety Camera Partnership, said: "The Dorset Safety Camera Partnership is very encouraged to learn of the findings of a poll which showed that three out of four drivers would not condone the vandalism of safety cameras."

A two-year report published by the Department of Transport found that average speeds at camera locations fell by 10 per cent and there was an average 35 per cent reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured at camera location in the pilot areas and the number of pedestrian casualties fell by 56 per cent.

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