Camera FAQs

If you were driving at a speed that amounts to an offence, a Notice of Intended Prosecution (NIP) will be sent to the registered keeper’s address with details of the violation. The NIP has to be sent within 14 days of the offence. Neither the enforcement officer at the camera site nor any other member of staff at Safer Roads Humber will be in a position to check recordings or make speculative searches on your behalf. You will simply have to wait if a NIP is coming through the post.

Camera enforcement takes place at locations that have a history of injury collisions and casualties, especially those that resulted in death and/ or serious injury (core camera sites), and at locations that suffer from a considerable speeding problem that either impacts on the quality of life of residents or poses a concern to public safety (local concern sites). Enforcement is undertaken to reduce and prevent injury collisions as well as to address anti-social and intimidating speeds in our towns and villages.

The partnership applies a set of site selection criteria to identify which sites qualify for core status based on their collision history. Local concern sites are identified by each local authority as part of their local Speed Management Procedures. Site selection is based on the collision history of a particular site in conjunction with speed data collected at that site.

More information on each camera site is available on our camera site map. Information on camera enforcement in general is available in our ‘Enforcement, Signing & Speed Management Policy’.

Sites are selected in consultation with all partners, including Humberside Police and the relevant highways authority, which is either the local council or Highways England. Both the collision and speed criteria determine whether a site qualifies for fixed cameras or whether mobile enforcement via enforcement vehicles is more suitable.

Before enforcement commences, an assessment takes place to establish whether the site is suitable for enforcement activities and whether camera enforcement is the most appropriate and cost effective solution to a casualty and/ or speeding problem.

Before enforcement commences, the partnership ensures that the posted speed limit is legal and that any relevant Traffic Regulation Orders (if applicable) are correct. Furthermore, a site audit takes placeto confirm that the speed limit is signed appropriately and that all signing, lining and lighting is in order. These checks are repeated before every single enforcement visit. Should a site not meet the basic requirements, then enforcement will be suspended until the identified issues are rectified.

Following the highways authority suggesting a new mobile camera site or there being a joint decision by Safer Roads Humber partners to establish a new site, a site visit/ audit is undertaken by experienced enforcement staff to assess the location for its suitability to become a camera site. This includes looking at the following issues:

• Posted speed limit (Traffic Regulation Order/ restricted/ derestricted road status)
• Speed limit gateway and repeater signage/ system of street lighting depending on road status
• Length of speed limit
• Site extents
• Camera vehicle parking locations (suitable, safe and legal; line of sight; obstructions to passing traffic or residents; where required, permission from private landowners is sought)
• Health & safety issues

Once a location has passed these checks, a site certificate will be created that captures the above data, in addition to information on:

• Site type
• Date commissioned
• Site extents including site coordinates
• Confirmation by the Highway Authority that the signage, lines and lighting conform to the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2016 (or any such publication thereafter) and the Traffic Signs Manual Chapter 3 (Traffic Signs) and Chapter 5 (Road Markings). In the case of roadworks, Traffic Signs Manual Chapter 8 (Part 1: Design. Traffic Safety Measures and Signs for Road Works and Temporary Situations)
• Comments/ other considerations
• Injury collision and casualty data
• Speed data

The site certificate is an administrative record held to ensure that all site information is available in one place. The data captured within does not have an impact on the legality of enforcement being carried out.

Safer Roads Humber holds a generic risk assessment document for mobile camera speed enforcement in relation to the ‘Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations’. All camera operators receive training on this. This covers preparation for deployment, travelling to and from the site, working at the site, manual handling, lone working etc.

There are no mandatory procedures to perform by law prior to enforcement activities, however, the agreed internal procedure is that before every visit

1. Operators undertake a run through of the site extents to verify the legality and visibility of any available speed limit signage.
2. Operators undertake a dynamic risk assessment to decide where to park/ enforce from, taking account of prevailing weather conditions and potential hazards.
3. Operators undertake relevant checks to set up the equipment, including a range check to ensure that the laser is working correctly, and an alignment check with nearby road furniture to ensure that the laser is aligned to the camera.

It is within the discretion of the camera operators to decide where to position themselves when undertaking enforcement activities, depending on a dynamic site risk assessment on the day. A dynamic risk assessment is being carried out by each camera operator on approach and prior to setting up and commencing enforcement at a site. This is a continual mental process where an individual observes and analyses their environment to identify risk. Dynamic risk assessments provide a way to safely control developing and unforeseen incidents and by their very nature are not written down, the camera operator simply continually observes, assesses obvious risks and mitigates accordingly, there and then.

If the operators identify issues at sites, e.g. relating to signage, parking, line of sight or operator health and safety issues, the information is fed back to the relevant highways authority, who will look into resolving the issue. The highways authorities own the roads and are therefore responsible for maintaining the camera sites, with Safer Roads Humber camera vehicles enforcing the locations on their behalf. If necessary and depending on the scale of the issue, the site will be suspended from enforcement until the issue has been rectified.

All vehicles operated by Safer Roads Humber are fully insured as required by the Road Traffic Act 1988 and are maintained by Emergency Services Fleet Management Ltd. Humberside Police also hold public liability insurance.

All Safer Roads Humber camera operators are trained in accordance with the requirements of the National Police Chief’s Council (NPCC) ‘Guide for the Operational Use of Speed and Red-Light Offence Technology’ document.

For each core camera site, Safer Roads Humber publishes historic collision, casualty, speed and offence data going back as far as 2006 for offence data and even further for collision and speed information (depending on the camera site) on its website. This information can be accessed via our camera site map (by clicking on the relevant site), with data being updated annually once the figures have been verified and all relevant databases have been closed. Due to the time required to process speed awareness courses, court referrals and collision files, at least 6 months will pass before confirmed figures are published (i.e. figures for the previous year will usually be published by late summer/ early autumn of the following year). As such, Safer Roads Humber will not publish figures for individual cameras sites for the current financial or calendar year.

Safer Roads Humber aims to change driver behaviour by encouraging motorists to be aware of the speed limits and to comply with them. We therefore support advertising the potential presence of speed enforcement by the use of clear, visible and conspicuous signs as well as highly visible equipment. However, the use of signs to indicate camera enforcement is NOT a legal requirement and there is also no requirement by law to make cameras highly visible.

The Department for Transport Circular 01/2007 and the NPCC (National Police Chief’s Council) Guide for the Operational Use of Speed and Red-Light Offence Detection Technology provide guidance on the signing, visibility and conspicuity of camera enforcement activity, but this is not mandatory. It is up to individual local authorities and road safety partnerships to decide on what (if any) signing, visibility and conspicuity rules are being followed locally.

The partnership will aim for core camera sites, either fixed or mobile, to be signed in accordance with the national guidance. In considering enforcement at other sites (e.g. local concern ones), the cost and benefits of installing signage will be balanced against the frequency, location and type of enforcement.

More information on our signage procedure can be found in our ‘Enforcement, Signing & Speed Management Policy’.

For the purpose of law enforcement police vehicles may park legally in any location providing they do not cause a hazard or obstruction. In order to undertake enforcement, the enforcement vehicle can park anywhere where it is safe to do so.

There is no deliberate concealment taking place. In order to detect traffic offences, an enforcement officer needs a clear view of passing traffic which means that the enforcement vehicle cannot be hidden from view by street furniture, vegetation etc as this would actually hinder observing the traffic and therefore detecting offences. If an enforcement officer operating from a van, motorbike or at the roadside can see a vehicle, this vehicle is also able to see that enforcement is taking place.

Safer Roads Humber operates both marked and unmarked vehicles for enforcement purposes. Marked vans, cars and motorbikes display high visibility, retro-reflective livery and ‘Safer Roads Humber’ marking, with camera vans also displaying camera ‘box brownies’. Unmarked vehicles include vans and cars, with some being equipped with emergency lights and two-tone sirens. If enforcement is conducted on foot and away from the enforcement vehicle, the operators will ensure that they wear high visibility jackets and are clearly visible.

In addition, core camera sites are clearly signed as such with camera terminal signs and camera repeater signs dotted along the whole stretch of the site, on both sides of the carriageway. These signs are there to inform and remind motorists that they are entering a camera enforcement site and provide ample warning that enforcement can take place on any day and at any time.

Both sides of the carriageway can be enforced, i.e. both approaching and receding vehicles can be detected. Motorcyclists are not exempt.

Unless you can prove that the camera device was malfunctioning at the time of the alleged offence or that it was being operated outside of its Home Office Type Approval, the offence will stand. Using cruise control or a speed limiter is not evidence that you were not speeding as these devices are not calibrated for accuracy and should not be relied upon for guaranteeing your speed.

Certainly not. As explained above, the primary aim of enforcing speed limits is to reduce collisions and casualties to make Humberside’s roads safer for all. However, speeding is also an anti-social and intimidating activity which generates many complaints from Humberside residents each year, so it is important that speeding motorists are dealt with and encouraged to comply with the posted limit in the future.

Losing a loved one or sustaining live changing injuries due to a driver who thought he was driving at a safe speed above the limit, i.e. at a speed that he subjectively believed to be in keeping with the prevailing conditions, devastates families for life. There are still far too many people having to cope with the loss or life changing injury of loved ones. The sad reality is that the vast majority of collisions are completely preventable and each casualty represents untold sorrow and heartache.

Using cameras for enforcing the speed limit is not a stealth tax on the motorists as a tax is something all citizens must pay. The only motorists who will be subject to speeding notices and who need to fear prosecution are those who break the law and in so doing put themselves and others at risk. Law abiding motorists will not incur any costs – the offender pays rather than the tax payer!

Cameras are only a small part of the road safety toolkit, albeit one loved by the popular press.There remains a great deal of poor reporting and often misreporting in the media, with coverage on cameras frequently being inaccurate or selective.

Safer Roads Humber is funded via cost recovery from offender education courses (‘the offender pays, rather than the tax payer’). Any funds received are used to meet the costs of the agencies involved in operating cameras and the related administrative activities (e.g. employee costs, equipment & vehicle costs, premises, supplies & services, course costs etc.), with any surplus being re-invested into the local community as part of local road safety projects.

The fine revenue from those paying a speeding fine (fixed penalty) and accepting points on their license is paid directly to HM Treasury, so neither Safer Roads Humber nor Humberside Police receive any revenue from fixed penalties. In addition, some offences are dealt with at court where a fine may be imposed, which is then collected by the courts and also sent to HM Treasury.

Contrary to popular belief, public attitude surveys across the country regularly show that there is widespread support of speed cameras. AA Populus polls have consistently highlighted that approx. 70 % to 80% of drivers deem speed cameras an acceptable way to identify speeding vehicles. In theOctober 2016 survey this figure was even higher with 82% of respondents supporting the use of cameras. 86% agreed that it is important speed cameras are maintained and operational in order to be effective in reducing speed. This shows that speed cameras are generally endorsed by the motoring public, although there is a vociferous minority of people that do seem to have a personal axe to grind.

Speed limits are set by the relevant highways authority – on motorways and trunk roads, this is Highways England. On all other roads speed limits are set by the local authority.

Before a speed limit is set, the police are consulted and where required, a traffic regulation order is issued. A restricted road where there is a system of street lighting has a default speed limit of 30mph(unless another limit is indicated) and a Traffic Regulation Order is not necessary.

The speed limit is displayed on circular signs installed on both sides of the carriageway and if there are signs indicating speed limits, these should be followed.

The Highway Code clearly states that ‘Streetlights mean 30mph’:

Rule 124: You must not exceed the maximum speed limits for the road and for your vehicle. The presence of street lights generally means that there is a 30mph speed limit unless otherwise specified.

If a road is street lit and there are no speed limit entry or repeater signs, this indicates that a 30mph speed limit applies.

If there are no streetlights and no repeater signs then it is likely the road is subject to a national speed limit.

In all other circumstances, repeater signs indicating the posted speed limit should be present.

The most likely answer is that you were in a 30mph limit. These are usually signified by the presence of street lighting, lit or unlit, in a built up area as described in the Highway Code. The Highway Code clearly states that, in an area with a system of street lighting, the 30mph limit applies to all traffic unless signs show otherwise.

The law does not allow highway authorities to put repeater speed limit signs on 30mph roads that have street lights. So, when driving on built-up, street lit roads, motorists should always assume the limit is 30mph, unless signage indicates that another speed limit applies. Motorists should not assume that the speed limit is higher only because a road looks like a higher speed limit road.

The national speed limit is depicted by a white circular sign with a black stripe diagonally across it from right to left. It varies depending on the type of road you are on and the category of vehicle you are driving.

If you are on a dual carriageway or motorway and driving a car or motorcycle, the national speed limit is 70mph. If you are on a single carriageway and driving a car or motorcycle, the national speed limit is 60mph.

The national speed limits for cars towing caravans/ trailers, buses/ coaches and goods vehicles vary depending on the type of road and the exact type of vehicle. More information on national speed limits for these types of vehicles can be found on the Government’s speed limit website: http://www.gov.uk/speed-limits.

Please remember that in adverse weather conditions it is advisable to drive below these national speed limits.