Paul Smith, founder...

Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign commented: "The vast majority of our drivers are reasonable and responsible. They are using safe and appropriate speeds most of the time. On average they go more than 7 years between accidents, and 70 years between injury accidents. We must help them to be even more effective at avoiding accidents, not treat them like naughty school boys.

"Of course there are drivers who deserve the attentions of the law - we have unregistered, unlicenced, uninsured, drugged, drunken and reckless drivers - but none of these dangerous failings can be detected by a speed camera. We must restore the levels of Traffic Police. Traffic Police can also recognise drivers who are using speed recklessly or carelessly, but cameras can only recognise speed in excess of a speed limit.

"Another key failure of our road safety policy based around vehicle speeds and cameras it that road deaths simply are not going down despite substantial and ongoing improvements in vehicle safety. If cameras are not reducing deaths, nor changing attitudes to speeding then they have failed. It is as simple as that. The Government must own up to the failure, scrap all speed cameras and return urgently to the road safety policies that gave us the safest roads in the World in the first place."

More info from www.safespeed.org.uk