I AM writing in response to the letter from Rev David Kennedy (LET, January 16) as his letter, whilst being long in rhetoric, was very short on facts.

Perhaps he would like to consider the following:

1. Excess speed is the actual cause of only nine per cent of casualties.

2. It is a factor only in a further 20 per cent.

3. 71 per cent of casualties are due to reasons other than excess speed.

4. Since the introduction of saturation speed cameras, there has been no reduction in casualties despite huge improvements in safety technology in the motor industry.

By demonising drivers who occasionally exceed the speed limit, he and the Lancashire Partnership for Road Safety are missing the opportunity to make a real difference to road safety by tackling the areas that cause the majority of casualties.

Any driver who never exceeds a speed limit must be monitoring their speedometer to the point that they are a danger to other road users, as even in a three-second glance at 30mph, they will have travelled 130 feet.

A good driver will be constantly monitoring the actions of other road users and road conditions and their speed will fluctuate between slightly below and above the speed limit, this does not make them a criminal but someone I would much rather share the road with.

Cameras are now the revenue source for an unelected and unaccountable quango whose vested interests are denying us the road safety measures that we deserve.

STEPHEN SADLER, Valley Drive, Padiham.