5,000 MOTORISTS CHEATED IN LATEST CAMERA DISASTER.
24 February 2005 - Safe Speed

In a landmark case in Salisbury Magistrates court today 28 motorists had speeding cases dismissed because the temporary speed limit signs had not been displayed properly.

An estimated 5,000 more motorists have paid their fine and are
entitled to refunds and compensation.

Salisbury Magistrates agreed the speed limit at the A303 at Folly
Bottom did not exist in law. However is was heavily enforced with
cameras.

Safe Speed said this careless mismanagement is all too typical of the
way that speed cameras are used on our roads.

Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign,
(www.safespeed.org.uk) said: ''5,000 have paid fines when they were not
in breach of any law. I hope the authorities will contact them
promptly and ensure that they are both refunded and compensated for
the stress and inconvenience. Whoever is responsible for this fiasco
should lose their job.''

Paul continued ''When the authorities enforce technical regulations
they must always be aware of their matching obligations. Some might
claim that these motorists are ''getting away with it on a
technicality, but none of us can be expected to obey a speed limit if
we do not know that it was there. It really is that simple.

Claire Allison, 46, a make-up artist was the ''prime mover'' behind the
cases coming to court. She said: ''I drive a very high mileage and I do
my very best to always drive safely. The ticket in the post made me so
angry because I knew that I hadn''t passed a speed limit sign. Safe
Speed put me in touch with Richard Bentley last year and I took
hundreds of photographs to support my case. I am so relieved it is all
over.''

Richard Bentley, the signing expert who supported the defence cases
with evidence of the faulty signs said: ''The onus is clearly on the
highway authority to get it right in the first place. They failed in
that duty and members of the public have been massively
inconvenienced.''

Barry Culshaw, defence solicitor said: ''The signing regime at the
enforcement sight aptly named folly bottom was fundamentally flawed in
a number of material respects additionally a number of my clients had
been prosecuted under the wrong part of the legislation. 25 clients
facing allegations at Folly Bottom had their summonses dismissed and 2
further defendants were similarly acquitted in relation to speed
enforcement at a site at Wylye further westbound on the A303

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