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White lines 'cut more accidents than cameras'
Last Updated: 1:57am BST 02/07/2007

White lines are more effective at reducing road accidents than speed cameras, according to research.

Using a pot of paint to improve road markings could save up to eight times as many lives as a speed trap, claim experts.

Britain has 6,000 traps that snare two million motorists every year. Speed cameras typically lead to a 10 per cent fall in four common types of collision - head-on crashes, side-impacts at junctions, collisions with trees and lampposts and accidents involving cyclists or pedestrians hit by cars.

But Dr Joanne Hill, the head of research at the European Road Assessment Programme (EuroRAP), said dedicated lanes for turning right or left can cut side-impacts by as much as 80 per cent.

Anti-skid surfaces can lead to a 65 per cent improvement across the board while new signs can reduce of all types of crash by up to 40 per cent and renewing road markings cuts them by up to 35 per cent.

"Speed cameras are the least effective measure because drivers can still wilfully drive at speed through an area," said Dr Hill.

"A pot of paint doesn't cost a lot of money but the rate of return is phenomenal. A highways authority could typically save 20 fatal or serious injury accidents over three years just by re-lining a junction. A speed camera shouldn't be the only measure installed."

EuroRAP examined the accident statistics of 900 major routes to calculate death and serious injury rates, taking into account the number of vehicles using them each day.

A seven-and-a-half mile stretch of the A452 in the West Midlands was found to have seen the greatest reduction in serious accidents, down by 72 per cent in just six years.

It topped a league table of roads identified has being Britain's "most improved" killer routes, where crashes have dropped dramatically between 2000 and 2005.

But the improvement on the A452 - between Sutton Coldfield and Brownhills - was achieved without speed cameras. Instead, the speed limit was reduced by 10mph.

Just three roads in the most-improved top 10 have had traps installed. On one notorious stretch of the A272, near West Grinstead in West Sussex, crashes were cut by 71 per cent simply by cutting back overhanging hedges, repainting road markings, resurfacing and putting up new signs.