Speed Awareness Workshops – transcript
Most police authorities now offer speed awareness courses as an alternative to points on your licence. They are restricted to drivers who have exceeded the limit to a small degree – for instance for speeding up to 36mph in a 30mph zone. Leicestershire, Berkshire, Worcestershire, Northumbria, Oxfordshire, Devon, Thames Valley, Warwickshire, Suffolk, and Essex are just some of the police authorities which now offer these workshops, which were first introduced by Transport for London (TfL) and the Metropolitan Police Service in around 2003, as part of a long-term educational initiative to influence people’s driving behaviour.
Some people issued with a penalty for speeding slightly over the speed limit are offered the opportunity to take a speed awareness workshop instead of receiving a fixed penalty fine of about £60 and 3 penalty points on their driving licences. Workshops cost around £67 – £72 and last about three hours.
The workshops aim to change drivers’ attitudes to excessive and inappropriate speeds by informing them of the impact that speed can have in a collision. Most drivers don’t break the speed limit deliberately but the workshops aim to inform them of the potential danger of driving even a few miles an hour above the speed limit. The average speed of cars in the UK has increased by about 19mph over the last 12 years.
Motorway accidents only account for 3% of all road accidents in the UK, and for 4% of deaths. 74% of accidents occur on roads with 30mph limits, and statistics show that driving even just a few miles an hour over the legal limit can result in death or serious injury. Many car-drivers assume that drink-drive drivers are the number one criminal, but actually, most deaths are caused by ordinary drivers making everyday mistakes. At 35mph you are twice as likely to kill a child you hit as you are at 30mph, according to road safety charity Brake, which is a stark statistic. The likelihood of a person surviving being hit by a vehicle driving at 30 mph is 80%; this drops to a 30% likelihood at 35mph and only 10% of people hit by a vehicle moving at 40mph will survive.
The number of speed-cameras in the UK has risen from 1,935 in 2000 to just over 5,500 in 2007. These cost £23,000 each to instal and maintain, but since their introduction road deaths have fallen by one third. The financial cost of each road casualty has been estimated in relevant research as being approximately £1.3 million – taking into account the cost of policing, ambulance or fire-crews and hospital resources.
DriveTech (UK) started speed awareness courses in 2003 and between then and 2007, over 120,000 drivers went through their doors.
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