Town of La Crosse, Virginia
POLICE
DEPARTMENT
To
Protect and Serve
202 Carolina Street
La Crosse, Virginia 23950
Non Emergency (434)757-1223
Emergency Dial 911
This website last updated 19-Aug-2007 16:44
The Patrol Division of the
Town of La Crosse Police Department provides emergency and non-emergency
responses to calls for police service, as well as traffic enforcement.
Here a unit is seen working a speed enforcement detail with a LIDAR unit.
LIDAR and Radar can be utilized to determine the speed of vehicles. Speed is a known contributory factor to many motor vehicle injuries and deaths.
Do speed enforcement detection
devices (including speed cameras and radar and laser devices) reduce death
and injury from road traffic crashes?
Road traffic crashes are a major cause of death and disability. The speed at which a vehicle travels is an important determinant of injury; the faster the vehicle is travelling, the greater the energy inflicted on the occupants during a crash and the greater the injury.
Excessive speed (driving faster than the posted limit or too fast for the prevailing conditions) has been found to contribute to a substantial number of crashes. It is predicted that, if the number of speeding drivers is reduced, both the likelihood and severity of a crash will be lowered. Therefore, interventions aimed at reducing traffic speed are considered essential to preventing road injuries. The implementation of SEDs (speed enforcement detection devices; including speed cameras and radar and laser devices) is one such measure.
To evaluate the effectiveness of SEDs, the authors examined all eligible studies comparing areas before and after introduction of SEDs and their effect on road traffic crashes, injuries and speeding to areas with no SEDs.
The authors found 26 studies, of which 21 measured the effect on crashes, all of which found a lower number of crashes in the SEDs area. In the vicinity of SED sites the reductions ranged from 14% to 72% for all crashes, 8% to 46% for injury crashes, and 40% to 45% for crashes resulting in fatalities or serious injuries. Effects over wider areas showed a crash reduction ranging from 9% to 35%, 7% to 30% for all injury crashes and 13% to 58% for crashes resulting in fatalities or serious injuries. The studies of longer duration showed that these positive trends were either maintained or improved with time.
Despite the quality of the included studies being judged to be weak, the consistency of reported positive reductions in speed and crash outcomes across all studies suggest that SEDs are a promising intervention for reducing the number of road traffic injuries and deaths. However, higher quality studies using well designed controlled trials are needed to confirm this finding. As none of the studies were conducted in low-income countries, research in such settings is required. There is a need for consistency in methods, such as standards for the collection and reporting of speed and crash data, so that studies can be compared more easily. Studies should also continue careful data collection for lengthy follow-up periods after the installation of SEDs.
Notes: Retrieved from http://www.cochrane.org/reviews/en/ab004607.html on 26 May 2007
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