The latest road accident figures have come out and already they've been hit with controversy.
Buried in the Department for Transport (DfT) report is the statistic that fatal crashes with 'exceeding the speed limit' as a contributory factor have increased - despite the vast numbers of speed cameras now on our roads.
The figures also claim that the total number of accidents is in decline even though traffic has risen by 15 per cent since 1998.
The DfT also say the number of drink drivers killed or seriously injured has dropped by 4 per cent to 2,530.
The report states that the main contributory factor in road accidents is failing to look properly (35 per cent). Four of the six most frequently reported contributory factors involved driver or rider error or reaction.
For fatal accidents the most frequently reported contributory factor was loss of control, which was involved in 35 per cent of fatal accidents.
But roads campaigner Paul Smith of Safe Speed, says: "I have been warning for years that Department for Transport has been damaging UK road safety by neglecting driver quality.
"These new figures show that driver quality is in substantial decline with clear increases in a number of factors that depend on driver quality."
He added: "Fatal crashes with 'exceeding the speed limit' as a contributory factor have increased from 12 per cent last year to 14 per cent this year indicating that speed cameras are not reducing these deaths. This was entirely predictable.
"Just like last year, 95 per cent of all crashes do not involve any vehicle exceeding a speed limit, confirming once more that speed cameras are chasing a small and unnecessary target."
Capt Gasto, Campaigns Director for Motorists Against Detection, told Pistonheads.com: "Quite simply the increase is due to the fact that we are all concentrating on our speedos and not on what's going on around us."
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