In summary, yesterday’s road traffic extravaganza – a day of action code-named OperationEDWARD with stands for Every Day Without a Road Death – took place across the whole of the New Forest and seems to have involved officers, staff, and volunteers from the police, the Road Safety Unit, Fire service, Forestry England, the Verderers, British Horse Society, New Forest Road Awareness Group, and local Community Speed Watch Teams – as well as two mounted police horses from Thames Valley and a BBC film crew. From what I can gather, they started in the early morning at Hilltop, went on to the A35 going through Ashurst, then to Copythorne, an hour a lunchtime at Roger Penny Way (where Juma was killed at dusk), and ended in the early evening at Netley Marsh and Beaulieu.
Most of the day was spend in 30 mph problem areas away from the open Forest where volunteer Community Speed Watch Teams have been set up to monitor speeders in the villages. Without the presence of police officers, they would normally have no powers to enforce the law and can only send out letters and refer repeat offenders to the police.
On the open Forest, the two hours spent at Hilltop, according to a quote in the Lymington Times, was spent “…trying to reinforce the message that the Forest is a wonderful place to be, with lovely scenery and fantastic views, and it you live here please respect where you live and if you visit please respect it when you visit.” There was no mention of whether they are going to prosecute those drivers travelling in the 50’s but they did apparently catch one drink driver.
During the one hour spent at Roger Penny Way (B3078) at lunchtime, 39 offences were recorded. I imagine that these figures would have been even greater if the event hadn’t by then been publicised, the police van not been visible (as it has to be by law), and people not flashed other drivers to forewarn them of the police’s presence.
Surely this is good evidence that full-time Average Speed Cameras are needed on this road and represents a gross income of £3,900 in just one hour had they all been fined. All of the authorities believe that the cameras are justified but the police remain to be convinced.
One driver was caught doing 71 mph and according to the New Forest Roads Awareness group will be going straight to court – which is more than can be said of the person that killed my pony who, like me, is still waiting to hear whether he will be summonsed despite the police having a good and experienced idea of the speed at which he was travelling having measured the skid marks.
There were plenty of comments from the general public, many in favour of average speed cameras on the three blackspot roads and most in favour of more police action and enforcement.
In total today we have had 7 hours of speed monitoring, awareness raising and some enforcement; 4 hours in the villages and 3 on the open Forest.
Don't get me wrong, I am grateful for any action and especially enforcement, but we need so much more of this and we need those cameras.
Picture from New Forest Heart Cops Facebook page - bit worrying when yesterday was a Wednesday and the officer can't even set his watch right!