Posted: Sat Dec 15, 2007 11:47 am Post subject: Paul Smith (Safe Speed)
14th December 2007
Anti-speed-camera campaigner Paul Smith died last night aged 52.
The founder of the website SafeSpeed is believed to have suffered a stroke or heart attack at his home in Fife, Scotland. He had suffered two earlier heart attacks including one this summer.
Smith's work exposing failures of speed cameras had made him a respected and credible authority quoted frequently in national press. Claire Armstrong, his partner of 22 years, said she planned to take over the running of the website.
She said he was talking on the phone when he "suddenly took some deeps breaths and stopped responding … either he had a stroke or a vital artery became blocked."
As John Josephs writes, "His knowledge of and commitment to road safety was second to none. He was always able to support his strongly held views with rational arguments. Even his opponents respected him even if they didn't agree with his views. He will be a great loss to road safety", while motorcyclist "Kawasakibiker" says "Drivers and riders need a voice, and Paul was that voice".
(Our thanks to Motorcycle News for the above).
Many of us have known for a long time Paul Smith's excellent and tireless work towards a sane and common-sense approach to road safety. He was a superb advocate for motorists and motorcyclists (and let's face it, that's almost all of us) against the self-serving so-called "experts" of the Road Safety Industry and the blinkered loonies of those campaign groups that would rejoice to see us all walking the streets wearing clogs.
Of course his views aroused strong emotions in many people - just take a look at the SafeSpeed discussion page on Wikipedia, which appears to have been taken over by rug-chewing cyclists with too much time on their hands. But a perusal of the SafeSpeed website will reveal that he really did express the opinions and beliefs of the majority of British road-users. He will be much missed.
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