A report by the UK Statistics Authority has cast doubt on the figures that the Department for Transport has used to justify its speed camera campaign.
The Department for Transport claims that it has reached its target of reducing serious injuries in road accidents to 60 per cent of the average from the mid-1990s, partly thanks to the use of speed cameras.
Those figures, however, are based on police reports taken at the time of the accident. These have fallen, but statistics based on hospital admissions have not, calling the reliability of the police reports into question.
In its report, the UK Statistics Agency said: "The figures are widely recognised as being an incomplete count of both accidents and casualties," and that the figures "may not be sufficiently reliable to meet all user needs
Claire Armstrong, a campaigner for the anti safety camera group, Safe Speed, told the Daily Telegraph: "This is something we have been saying for years. It is disappointing that it only comes to light now after all the damage that has been caused by the wrong road safety messages and the extortionate amounts of money that has extracted from motorists and badly invested."