Road Safety? It's not even on the radar

THE BIG LIE about 'safety' cameras is that they are there to stop people speeding. They're
not, they exist to catch people speeding.  

Why else would the Government be about to ban in-car radar detectors which warn motorists
about speed traps?

Penalties have yet to be determined, but bank on confiscation of the equipment, heavy fines
and points on your licence.

I wonder where the 'If it saves one life' brigade stands on this? That's the excuse they
always wheel out to justify ever more Draconian motoring legislation, whether cutting speed
limits to five miles an hour, or reducing the drink-drive limit to half a pint of milk.

Would they rather a driver doing 40mph in a 30mph zone stamped on his brakes after being
alerted to the imminence of a speed trap? Or would they prefer him to carry on exceeding the
limit, even if that meant there was a greater chance of someone being killed in the event of
a collision?

Clearly, the Government and the police don't give a stuff about road safety. They just want
to nick people. The vast revenues from speeding tickets support a burgeoning 'safety camera
partnership' bureaucracy. They're not going to give that up in a hurry.

Drivers are a soft target. This week, we also learned that councils are buying more cameras
to issue parking tickets electronically. Oh, and extra cameras are to be erected to fine
drivers who stray into cycle lanes. (What about cameras to catch cyclists who stray on to
pavements, weave in and out of traffic like maniacs with a deathwish and who routinely
ignore red lights?)

Before some of you start bouncing up and down and accusing me of being a selfish boy-racer,
I would point out yet again that I rarely drive and have never had a speeding ticket in my
life. It's just that I hate our sinister surveillance society and the whole punishment and
entrapment culture which goes with it.

If the real aim was to encourage drivers to slow down, ministers would be making the fitting
of radar detectors compulsory, not illegal.

Richard Littlejohn
Dail Mail, 27 July 2007