Speed cameras can cause crashes just by existing, according to one camera partnership member.
Speaking on BBC Look East on Tuesday, Bryan Edwards of the Norfolk Camera Partnership said: "What does concern me is of course if people put up fake cameras, motorists could be coming along at 70, think it is a camera, brake, or get distracted and that could actually cause a collision."
While it is perfectly clear that Mr Edwards is referring to a fake speed camera, it's clear that a real speed camera is even more likely to cause dangerous distraction and panic responses among drivers.
Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign said: "It's long overdue that all the speed camera side effects were acknowledged and investigated. Everyone knows that there are serious side effects that can cause crashes, but I must say it is unusual to hear such an admission from a camera boss. At Safe Speed we're even more worried about subtle and insidious side effects that are tending to reduce driver quality.
"If it wasn't for massive spin and vested interests we would have scrapped speed cameras years ago. Speed camera are simply a distraction from real road safety. We won't get road safety back on track until we scrap the lot."
That said, might we not find that the government's response is then to hide the devices?
![](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 4 3"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
![](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="https://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 1 1"%3E%3C/svg%3E)