SAM2 Speed Awareness Camera
It’s been a long road…
The Parish Council embarked on this journey in July 2019 and it marked a major change in attitude within the council. It took the bold decision to stop kicking cans down the road and get things done.
A SAM2 speed camera was identified as necessary to help make the village a safer place to live for everyone, so we set about getting one.
council approval
3rd March – Due
Diligence completed
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Parish Council approve purchase
funding
23rd June – All funding now in place
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Order placed with Westcotec
police & highways
Police acceptance confirmed
↵ ↵ ↵ 3 ↵ ↵ ↵
Post sites confirmed with Highways
planning
21st Sept – Westcotec requested sites
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Now at final planning stage
posts
14th Oct – Westcotec installed posts
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Awaiting delivery of camera
completion
30th Oct – Camera
installation
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SAM2 Speed Camera
initiative complete
we’ve done it…
when so many said we couldn’t…
The Issue
Knapton is an almost linear village that hugs three roads;
- Knapton Road – this main road mainly bypasses the village and links Mundesley with North Walsham
- Hall Lane – this rural back road has become the rat-run between Mundesley and North Walsham and a speed track for school traffic
- The Street – another rural backroad that has been hi-jacked by HGV and other traffic to and from Bacton Gas Terminal
The Problems
Both Knapton Road and Hall Lane have serious speeding issues with many drivers choosing not to slow down to 30mph as they leave or enter Hall Lane.
The current speed limit for vehicles travelling from North Walsham up Hall Lane is 60mph right up to MADRA, only a few hundred yards from the children’s playground. There are no pavements for the elderly to use when they try to get to events at MADRA, or for school children as they make their way to the village playground, yet a lot of traffic – including Mums on the school run – don’t slow down through the village.
The speed limit for traffic approaching our village on the Knapton Road from both directions is 40mph. Access to the village is on a bend where the road joins both The Street and Hall Lane which are strictly 30mph from this point. It is commonplace for drivers travelling from Mundesley to cross the junction into Hall Lane without breaking, clearly over the speed limit as they enter the village, with no pavements to offer safety and refuge for pedestrians.
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The Aim
Our village is home to residents of all ages and abilities, from young children walking to school to more mature parishioners walking to the bus stop, and every one of them has the right to be able to use our roads in safety.
This part of our overall road safety strategy is simply to enforce the legal speed limit, or rather, to have it enforced. To do that, we need to provide proof with enough evidence to encourage the Police to invest their time to identify and prosecute the culprits.
The Method
For the Police to setup a mobile Speed Camera which they can use to catch and prosecute speeding drivers, they need to have recorded data that they can evaluate to identify the most potentially effective time to set up the speed trap.
On the advice of the Police we are purchasing a SAM2, a mobile Speed Awareness Message unit which approaches the problem two ways;
- it will flash up vehicle speeds and provide a reminder to drivers travelling through our village that the legal speed limit is 30mph
- it will record the speed and time of day of every vehicle that passes it
The data recorded will be collated by the parish council, trended and distributed to our Community Speed Watch, the Police and the Highways Department. The Community Speed Watch team can use this data to select when the prime time speeders travel through certain areas of the village so that they can go out and target persistent speeders. We will also publish the results (that we are allowed to) on this website.
The SAM2 can only be located in any one location for 30 days, after which it has to be moved and it cannot return to that location for a further 60 days. So the committee has identified five locations and have submitted them to Highways for their approval. Once approved, we can install the camera for up to 4 weeks gathering data before it is moved to another spot to maximise the effectiveness in recording any speeding motorists endangering our residents as they attempt to shave a few seconds off their journey.
What is a SAM2
It is a vehicle activated sign that displays the speed of an approaching vehicle. If the vehicle exceeds the speed limit a ‘SLOW DOWN’ message is shown, once the limit is exceeded by 10mph the speed is no longer shown and the ‘Slow DOWN’ message remains, this removes the temptation for some drivers to see what speed they can register!
Who owns the SAM2?
Knapton Parish Council purchased the SAM2 and manages it on behalf of the parish.
Where can SAM2 be placed?
We deploy it in 30mph and 40mph limits, on stretches of road that are of concern to the community. We use existing posts and on occasion a new post might need to be installed to accommodate the sign. We will not place the sign where it will cause an obstruction or be an inappropriate distraction.
The current specific sites have been agreed between the Parish Council and an officer of Norfolk County Council’s Highways department.
Who moves SAM2?
Parish councillors decide where to locate the camera and then move it, ensuring that all collected data is subsequently forwarded to the Police. Full training was provided by the sign manufacturer, Westcotec.