Cameras do cut deaths on roads

And even more grousing and objection are sure to follow with the disclosure today that police now plan to set up mobile speed-camera traps just yards after the fixed cameras that motorists have driven past.

The move stems from the belief of the Lancashire Partnership for Road Safety, the police-and-councils body behind the increasing cameras purge, that drivers are getting wise to their locations of the county's fixed speed cameras.

As a result, many are slowing down as they go past them, are then speeding up again and going over the limit. Now, they stand to be trapped by mobile cameras set up within as few as 500 yards of the fixed ones.

Sneaky? More 'evidence' that the cameras are really about raking in and maintaining revenue from fines -- if this new move is a reaction to the amount generated by the fixed cameras slumping because drivers are slowing down at them? Certainly, such arguments are bound to be aired yet again -- especially as the partnership has a declared aim of netting a staggering £20million from fines.

But while the debate is set to rage anew, there must be flung into it the telling facts that the cameras can and do cut death and injuries on our roads. For the figures show that the number of deaths on Lancashire's roads between April and July this year has fallen by a third of the total for the same period in 2001, before the speed camera blitz began in earnest.

Deaths are down from 24 to 16 and injuries dropped from 2,570 to 2,393. At the same time, partnership officials estimate that the number of people breaking the speed limit as they pass a camera has fallen from 18 per cent to four per cent.

Such positive results drive a hard argument against the negatives that the grousers and complainers are putting up. They say the cameras work -- they save lives, reduce injuries and increase road safety.