Crook of Devon Community Speed Watch Pilot

For many motorists the sight of a yellow jacket and a speed detector is an uncomfortable one, even when they are driving within the speed limit. Soon, a group of volunteers clad in high-viz jackets will join Tayside Police in the drive to get Scotland’s roads safer; the Community Speed Watch Pilot will start in Crook of Devon on 13 April 2012.

Crook of Devon is one of the communities along the A977 (Kincardine to Kinross), a road that has seen a considerable increase in traffic since the opening of the Clackmannan Bridge. The community has campaigned for mitigation measures along the route but it has proven very difficult to get the traffic to slow down.

‘We live on the Main Street, along the A977 and have noticed this increase,’

says Maxine Gray, one of the volunteers.

‘When bringing our children to school, we are very aware of the vehicles, heavy lorries among them, and there is so little to separate the traffic from the pedestrians.’

A sentiment echoed by Victoria Sutherland, whose young son was hit by a car when crossing at the pedestrian crossing.

‘It was a miracle he escaped with only minor injuries, but you cannot expect miracles all the time. There have been several bad accidents along this route in the last few years.’

Trudy Duffy-Wigman, secretary of Fossoway and District Community council explains:

‘We’ve got a group of 13 volunteers together, who were vetted and trained to a high standard by Tayside Police. We follow the same protocol as officers from Tayside Police. Our primary aim is not give out speed tickets; it is to make people aware that this is our community they are passing through. All of us have been guilty by going on the auto-pilot and then realising we were doing 38mph in a 30mph area. We want to raise awareness of speed restrictions so that we can all live in a safer community.’

If the three-month pilot is successful, the group may try to raise funds to obtain their own speed-detecting equipment to continue with the project, rolling it out over other villages.

When the volunteers take to the road, they do so with the support of Tayside Police, who will also be monitoring the results. Inspector Emma Bowman of Tayside Police:

‘Community Speed Watch is a scheme that has seen much success south of the border and allows communities to take control of one of the issues that commonly affects quality of life and safety i.e. speeding motorists. For years now there has been a speeding problem in the villages along the A977, and although Tayside Police along with the Tayside Safety Camera Partnership regularly enforces the limits, officers cannot be present as often as they would like. It is a known fact that an increase in speed increases the dangers for road users, and often those responsible for speeding are not doing it deliberately but have either failed to observe a speed limit sign or have not really been paying attention to their speed. Initial monitoring suggests that almost 41% of vehicles travelling through Crook of Devon do so in excess of the 30mph speed limit. Of these a disproportionate number of those are drivers of small commercial vehicles. The presence of volunteers in their high visibility clothing provides a gentle reminder of the speed limit causing the driver to adjust their speed accordingly. All volunteers are trained to Police standards on type approved equipment which is correctly maintained and calibrated, and the Road Policing Unit in Perth will be looking out for patterns of repeat offending and acting upon it. The scheme will run for three months during and after which we will assess the speeds and ascertain if there has been a significant speed reduction. It is hoped that if the scheme is successful it can be rolled out elsewhere across Tayside.’

Rod Paterson, traffic specialist of Fossoway and District Community Council:

‘Volunteers will monitor traffic speeds at various times of the day and week; motorists who choose to ignore the existing speed limit and the additional advance warning signs that will be in place will be at risk of being reported to the Police, and will receive a warning letter through the post. Several warning letters or excessive and dangerous speed may result in more serious action being taken by the Police. All information passed to the Police will be shared with other agencies as would be the normal case, including the DVLA and VOSA (the latter for Large Goods Vehicles). For the Community and volunteers it is more however about trying to change motorist’s attitudes when driving through all the communities along the A977 and A91 in the area; respecting our speed limits and the reasons why speed limits are in place in our village communities and beyond.’

The pilot will start on Friday 13 April and will continue for three months.