Speed cameras 'may cause accidents'

Fresh doubts over the value of speed cameras were raised today after a surge in accidents at sites where they are installed.

Official papers show that the number of crashes rose instead of fell at 70 sites in London.

At 32 speed camera sites there were an average of 48 more accidents involving death or serious injury over 12 months compared with previous years.

At 38 traffic light camera sites there were on average 62 more accidents, Association of London Government papers show. An investigation has now been ordered into why the cameras have not cut deaths and injuries. Some could be ripped out.

At other sites engineers will design traffic-calming schemes - in addition to the cameras.

Experts today claimed drivers were "distracted" by cameras and forced to look at their speedometers instead of the road. The alert comes after West Midlands police announced plans to remove 10 cameras and take film out of 150 more after fears they were endangering road safety.

Transport experts are baffled by the rise in accidents at specific sites in London. Overall, cameras cut accidents by 21 per cent, a study by the Transport Research Laboratory shows.

London's remaining 730 speed and red-light cameras have all seen accident levels fall, according to the London Safety Camera Partnership, made up of councils, police and TfL.

The association's report says: "The partnership will review the sites where collisions have increased. The review will include casualty/collision analysis, collision mapping and

speed survey data." Some cameras will be replaced by electronic signposts which, instead of fining drivers, display their speeds.

Each investigation will cost about ?500, costing the partnership ?35,000. A partnership spokesman said possible reasons for the cameras ' failure included rising traffic-levels and accidents caused by factors other than speed. He said there could be "individual reasons" at each site.

Possible solutions include changing street lighting, road markings and junction layouts and re-phasing traffic lights.

The investigat ion has prompted demands for an overhaul of the Government's speed camera policy. Paul Smith of SafeSpeed said cameras were "nowhere near as effective" as claimed.

In 50mph zones policed by cameras, drivers spent so long studying their speedometers that they missed 40 per cent of what happened in the road ahead, he claimed.

Edmund King of the RAC Foundation said: "It is highly worrying that accidents are going up. There could be conflict between motorists who slow down for cameras and the growing underclass of unregistered drivers who do not."

Rob Gifford of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety said: " Cameras are sometimes the best answer but not always."