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Last Updated: Monday, 10 November, 2003, 16:40 GMT
Speed cameras
Fiona Bruce presents a special investigation into speed cameras. Are they lifesavers or money making machines that actually cause accidents?

There are now around 5,000 speed cameras in the UK and the increase in their use has been accompanied by a massive rise in the number of drivers with points on their licences.

That figure has doubled in the last five years.

This has led to some extreme reaction with some 700 cameras vandalised or destroyed in the past three years.

Camera rage

Real Story meets Karl Joyce, 19, who is facing up to three years in jail for attempting to set fire to a roadside camera after two of his family were caught speeding. Local magistrates in Norwich sent him to up to a higher court so he would get a tougher sentence.

Despite this, a man known as Captain Gatso from the vigilante group Motorists Against Detection (MAD) maintains that no prison sentence will deter his members from sabotaging speed cameras up and down the country.

Richard Brunstrom, the Chief Constable of North Wales, has labelled MAD as nothing more than terrorists. His force issued 33,000 speeding fines in just five months earlier this year.

He tells the programme: "No-one forces you to speed. It isn't an act of God."

Also in the programme, the motorcyclists who risk everything to join the 200-miles-an-hour club.

We report on the bikers who compete to travel at frightening speeds on ordinary roads.

Exclusive research by Real Story shows that motorcycle deaths have risen by a quarter in the last year.

Real Story: Monday 17 November 2003 at 1930 GMT on BBC One and streamed live on the Real Story website.

SEE ALSO:
Speed cameras 'too profitable'
06 Nov 03  |  Berkshire
Speed camera warning 'a hoax'
01 Nov 03  |  Berkshire
Motorist's camera rage
07 Oct 03  |  Lancashire
'Terrorist' speed camera rebels
17 Nov 03  |  Real Story
Rise in biker deaths
17 Nov 03  |  Real Story


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