The friendly face of traffic control By Emma Henry

Crime Reporter EXPRESSION OF APPROVAL: Road safety officer Steve Wood with one of the SIDs showing a smiling face for motorists driving under the speed limitPictures: Antony Moore/Damian Halliwell A MOTORISTS driving under the speed limit could find themselves being rewarded with a cheery smile from a new roadside monitor.

Oxfordshire County Council has just taken delivery of three new Speed Indicator Displays, known as SIDs.

The portable device tracks drivers from 100m away and beams up their speed, together with a smiling or sad face, on a roadside board.

Motorists caught going over the speed limit will not be fined, but police hope SID will act as a deterrent and make drivers think twice before speeding again.

Four trailer versions of this device have been used before in the north of the county, but the council has become the first authority in the country to take delivery of the smaller tripod versions, which can be used more easily in urban areas.

Steve Wood, the council's speed reduction officer, said: "SIDs have never been used in the Oxford city area before. We didn't want to use the trailers because of traffic problems.

"We have got three, one for the south Oxfordshire area, one for the Vale of White Horse and one for the Oxford city area.

"The feedback we have from the drivers who have been through the machine has been very positive. We've had people giving thumbs up, honking their horns and even motorists coming back to tell the operator how good it is that drivers get something back in return for sticking to speed limits.

"Although it seems rather gimmicky, it brings a little bit of humour to what is a serious subject."

Mr Wood said the SIDs were set up after liaisons with local councils and were mainly placed in 30mph zones, with some 40mph zones being targeted.

Warning

Sgt Ken Antell, Thames Valley Police's casualty reduction officer, said: "These new devices are funded through the Safer Roads campaign. We get back a percentage of the money from speed offences, but that has to be used for road safety measures.

"People think we're out to try and get thousands of tickets, but we do use deterrents and are giving motorists every opportunity we can to make them slow down."

Sgt Antell said traffic officers would be targeting some areas beyond the boards to catch motorists who did not heed SID's warning.

The latest figures available from Thames Valley Police show more than 87,000 drivers have been caught on film speeding since the Safer Roads campaign was launched in April 2000.

This has brought in £2.19m, of which the force has been allowed to keep £1.5m to re-invest in its speed camera network.

Thames Valley is one of eight forces taking part in the pilot scheme but was the only one to record no difference in accident rates after the first 12 months.

emma.henry@nqo.com

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