Danger drivers unlikely to face fines

PARENTS collecting their children from schools in Broadwater on Tuesday said confidence in red light cameras was low and they feared for the safety of their kids.

Six cars went through the red lights northbound on the Broadwater Road outside Northbrook College in half an hour, with a "camera" to catch them only metres down the road. There were no flashes and no likelihood that any of the dangerous driver will be brought to book.

A five-year-old girl was nearly knocked down on Tuesday morning on her way to Broadwater Manor School.

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Her mother, Paula Widdowson, said: "She had seen the cars slowing down at the lights ready to stop and she started to cross. One car came speeding through and I had to shout at her to stop.

"I think she was more frightened of me shouting at her than the car coming towards her. It really is dangerous."

A red light camera has been aimed at the Broadwater Road/ Sompting Road junction since 1994, although officials admit only one camera in five has film in it at any one time.

Emma Rogers, spokesperson for the Sussex Camera Partnership, which is in charge of the cameras, said in the three years before the camera was installed there were nine accidents resulting in injury. Three years after the camera was put in place there were four and the three years after that there were two '“ a drop in accidents of 68 per cent.

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She said there have been 70 per cent less casualties since the camera was installed.

While the partnership was happy to quote accident statistics, it would not supply prosecution details to the Herald this week.

The figures are of no comfort to the parents who have to cross the Broadwater Road each day.

Mother Lyn Perry, of Evelyn Road, said: "Sooner or later a child or even adult is going to get killed. My biggest problem is that they have got a red light camera but it doesn't seem to work.

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"It's a death trap. There is no right of way for pedestrians. People are so insistent on getting through the red light. You can shout at them as they come into Sompting Road and they will just give you two fingers."

Joanna Brown, a Broadwater resident, is particularly concerned about her dyspraxic daughter. She said: "I have never seen anything like it here. I get very worried about my daughter.

"The road to the north goes from three marked lanes into two lanes but with no markings. I think the drivers panic and feel they have got to get across before anyone else.

"I don't think there is film in the camera and everybody knows this."