New campaign to slow down drivers

A NEW speeding campaign is being launched today in a bid to cut the carnage on Essex roads.

The Essex Safety Camera Partnership has contributed £5,000 towards a television advert and poster campaign urging drivers to slow down.

The first advert - slow-motion footage of a football bouncing into a road in front of a Mercedes travelling at 20mph which is able to stop safely as a boy goes to fetch the ball - is to be aired on ITV1 just before 8pm tonight.

Posters tying in with the TV advert will be displayed on the back of buses in the county.

The message is "See more - slow down". Instead of shock tactics, the advert is aimed at showing how it is easier to react to potential danger when driving slowly.

Essex Safety Camera Partnership spokesman Stuart Clarkson said: "Just a couple of miles an hour can make all the difference as to whether you're able to stop in time to prevent a crash.

"By slowing down you'll have more time to react, so you'll be a safer driver."

He added: "Our only aim is to put a stop to the carnage occurring on our roads, and the associated heartache that thousands of families every year are forced to deal with. In the eastern region alone, an average of 12 people are killed or seriously injured on the roads every day."

In Essex so far this year 67 people have been killed in road accidents.

Essex Safety Camera Partnership is running the advert with six other local partnerships which operate speed cameras across the eastern region.

In an anti-speeding campaign earlier in the year they ran a TV campaign which was watched by nearly two-and-a-half million people at least five times.

No statistics are available to demonstrate what impact the campaign had on motorists' speeds.

The advert features the message: "Safety cameras aren't there to catch you out, they just want you to slow down."

The campaign is due to run for three weeks.