ROAD traffic collisions involving death and serious injuries have been reduced by two thirds on sites that have a speed camera.

As revealed earlier in the week, driving in West Mercia is now considered safer than ever before.

According to the area's safety camera partnership, as well as a fall in the more serious incidents, collisions involving personal injury have also been reduced - by 36.9 per cent.

Peter Bond, of Hylton Road in St John's, Worcester, welcomed the reduction in death and serious injuries.

"This proves the need for cameras," said the 60-year-old engineer. "If they save just one life they are worth it. I think it is the right direction to go in."

Mr Bond said the camera on Hylton Road had slowed down traffic heading towards the city centre, but said one was needed in the other direction.

"They come the other way at 60mph and it doesn't catch them," he said.

These are from the partnership's first three years of operation and only include analysis at sites where cameras have been up for at least a year.

As a result, the cost to motorists has been cut. Taking an average fixed notice of £60, 47,554 people were caught on camera last year, paying a total of £2,853,240.

On the same basis, this is eight per cent lower than the year before, which stood at 51,679 people and £3,101,347.80.

It cost the partnership £2,421,324 to deliver its operations in 2005-06. In Worcester, speed cameras have been a big difference on some roads, but not others.

The A44, New Road, used to see an average of 88.1 per cent of motorists speeding before November 2004, when a speed camera was erected.

Since then, 0.1 per cent of motorists break the 30mph limit. Of those breaking the limit, most (85 per cent) were travelling at 43.4mph or less.

The City Walls Road has seen a similar improvement, with 48.6 per cent speeding traffic before, compared to just 4.3 per cent now.

But the presence of cameras has not made an outstanding difference everywhere.

At Woodgreen Drive, Warndon, 55 per cent of motorists are still reported as exceeding the speed limit since a camera was installed in May 2003, although this does compare to 87.4 per cent before then.

The A38, Bath Road, still sees just under a quarter of motorists (29.4 per cent) ignoring the 30mph limit, compared to previous figures of 68 per cent.

Trevor McAvoy, project manager for the safety camera partnership, said: "The review of our first three years of operations shows downward trends in collisions and speeds in the vicinity of enforcement sites, which is encouraging.

"While much more remains to be done, these results clearly evidence the valuable contribution being made by the safety camera programme to overall road safety."

As the partnership itself has attested, speeds cameras have not always been popular with the public, but it insists attitudes are changing.

Mr McAvoy added: "Although common perception suggests that safety cameras are unpopular, public opinion surveys carried out in the region have shown that almost 75 per cent of those questioned supported the use of safety cameras as a means of reducing casualties on our roads."

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