MOTORISTS are already adapting to a serious police effort to cut road deaths at accident blackspots in Cumbria by warning other drivers that mobile speed cameras are in operation, reports Ellis Butcher.

Police getting to grips with the new roadside technology in Furness and South Lakeland have spotted drivers flashing their lights to warn oncoming motorists to watch their speed.

"I have had feedback from some bobbies to say that it has been like a Pink Floyd light show out there," said Kevin Tea, a spokesman for the project.

In another scheme launched this week, Cumbria Police and the DVLA are joining forces to tackle the county's estimated 19,000 untaxed cars by taking to the streets in the DVLA's Stingray mobile camera units accompanied by wheel clamping teams.

The cameras can read the number plates of passing vehicles and check them against DVLA records and then store the images of unlicensed cars. Fines can go up to £1,000 for cars and £23,000 for HGVs.

The safety camera scheme will monitor 20 sites throughout the area with speed checks being carried out at each site twice a month.

Annually, 3,300 people are fined for speeding in Cumbria and a further 20,200 fines will need to be issued if the £1.3 million scheme is to pay for itself in the first year.

Offending motorists will be fined £60 in a notice through the post in which they must return their driving licence for endorsement.

People can request a court appearance, while those that refuse to pay or have been pictured doing excessive speed, will be summonsed to court.

The aim is to cut deaths and serious accidents on roads in Cumbria by 15 per cent between now and 2006, with fatalities/serious injury accidents falling by 27 in the first year.

The cameras will be operated from specially painted police bays and will target 47 sites in the county, which account for 76 per cent of all serious accidents.

The scheme is run by the Cumbria Road Casualty Reduction Partnership, which includes the police, Cumbria County Council and Cumbria Magistrates' Court.

It hopes that decreasing serious accidents will help relieve the burden on the health service.

Sanctioned by the Department for Transport, the partnership has purchased six new mobile cameras that can be mounted on tripods or vans.

Motorists are given advanced warnings of where checks are taking place by roadside signs placed a kilometre away and the cameras are operated by officers wearing high visibility clothing. The money generated from fines can be claimed back from the Government but only to cover costs and to carry out further speed enforcement.

Steve Callaghan, Safety Camera project manager, said: "We are trying to change people's opinions. The police are not going to get any money out of this and we will not be hiding behind trees. The only people that will pay are those breaking the statutory speed limits. It is more important to get to where you are going safely, than it is to get there on time."

Mobile cameras will be operated on the A6 at Shap Road and Milnthorpe Road, Kendal; the A685 Appleby Road, Kendal, the A65 Hollin Hall to Hornsbarrow, Kirkby Lonsdale; Burton Road and Lound Road, and Lound Road to Oxenholme Road, Kendal.

On the A590 sites monitored will be between Heaves, Levens and Gilpin, Haverthwaite to Backbarrow, the Bouth Road Junction to Greenodd, and Newlands, Ulverston.

The A591 coverage will be Ings and Ings Village, the A592 on Rayrigg Road, Bowness, the A5087 coast road and the B5277 Lindale Road, Grange.

A6 sites include the A6 Selside, taking in Forest Hall, Selside, and Garnett Bridge, and on the M6, Junction 37 to 38 and Junction 38 to 39.

April 17, 2003 14:30