WHEN we talk about speed being a significant contributory factor in accident casualty rates that is exactly what we mean.

We are not saying or trying to suggest for a moment that all accidents, or even the majority of accidents, are caused directly by speeding, but, rather, than in a crash involving one or more other vehicles or in a collision with a pedestrian or cyclist, how fast you are driving is relevant to the likely seriousness or otherwise of the injuries you will suffer.

It is a fact that driving at 35mph, you are twice as likely to kill someone if in an accident than you are at 30mph -- whatever the accident's cause. This is because no matter how good or experienced a driver you are, the extra five mph means you need an additional 21ft to stop. And you can do a lot of extra damage in 21ft. It is that simple.

Harry Robinson (Letters, August 28) is quite right to quote Transport Research Laboratory data identifying inattentiveness, carelessness and poor judgment as driver faults more likely than speeding to be casual factors in road accidents.

However, by then using this data to assert that we are misleading the public in our anti-speed campaign, which highlights speed as the main cause of fatalities, Mr Robinson shows that he has failed to understand our message. He confuses the cause and outcome issues at play here.

Our primary concern is outcome as we are tasked with reducing Lancashire's road accident casualty and fatality rates to meet target sets by the Government. We are about encouraging people to slow down to protect themselves and other road-users in the event of an accident.

Sometimes, this encouragement is through enforcement represented by traffic cameras. At other times, it is through engineering solutions such as speed humps and public education programmes.

I would like to assure Mr David Gledhill (Letters, August 28) that we do have a dedicated child road safety programme. It is a new initiative called BeeSafe and it will be rolled out across the county now that our children are back in school.

LINDA SANDERSON, Communications Manager, Lancashire Partnership for Road Safety, Preston.