'Speed camera research was axed'

The Government cancelled research into the effect speed cameras were having on accident rates and driver behaviour, a request under the Freedom of Information Act has revealed.

The cancellation by the Department for Transport (DfT) was described as "astonishing and grossly irresponsible" by anti-speed camera group Safe Speed.

The DfT said in its reply under the Act that its original research was replaced by research looking at the wider effects of cameras.

But Safe Speed, which believes cameras are having no effect on casualty rates, said the original research was dropped because the DfT was "scared about the likely results".

It was a Safe Speed member who organised the anti-road charging petition which attracted 1.8 million signatures on a Downing Street website recently.

Safe Speed has published its own report on the "side effects" of speed cameras, pointing out that neither road deaths nor the number of people taken to hospital after crashes had fallen as expected since the introduction of speed cameras.

Safe Speed said the best estimate of the life-saving benefit of speed cameras stood at 25 lives a year and that if more lives than this are lost then the cameras were "increasing the death toll on British roads".

Safe Speed founder Paul Smith said: "Our analysis is clear and confident and takes proper account of all known science, statistics and systematic analysis. Our confident conclusion is that speed cameras are making road safety much worse and must be scrapped immediately."

He went on: "It is astonishing and grossly irresponsible that the DfT has cancelled their important 'side effects' research. I can only imagine that they were scared about the likely results and would rather save face than save lives.

"I would love to see a DfT point-by-point response to our new report but of course they cannot properly respond because they have cancelled their research."