THE Lancashire Partnership For Road Safety has recently been doing a lot of soul-searching to explain why the greatest concentration of speed cameras in the country has lead to an increase in deaths on Lancashire's roads.

Perhaps my recent experience will give them some clues.

Travelling to Rotherham through the roadworks on the M66, a barrel fell off the wagon immediately in front of us.

Unfortunately, as we were just approaching one of the speed cameras, my friend who was driving was looking at his speedometer and not the road, and it was only my shouted warning that enabled him to take evasive action.

There were five of us in the car and without my warning we would almost certainly have been involved in an accident as the motorway was busy.

There are enough distractions on our roads without the need to constantly monitor our speed, not to mention the hazards caused by dangerous driving and defective vehicles which speed cameras do not address.

The Partnership is a quango which seeks to justify the continued employment by the pretence that cameras are the mainstay of road safety.

STEPHEN SADLER, Valley Drive, Padiham.