A spokesman for the Association of British Drivers said more traffic police not more camera prosecutions would make the roads safer. The number of road-dedicated police in Merseyside has tumbled in recent years, the Daily Post revealed earlier this year. An ABD spokesman said: "We need more traffic police, but we need to balance that with putting an end to speed cameras. "Not only have they given no safety benefits, but we do not know what dangerous side-effects they have. "The Government badly needs to get the nation's road safety strategy back on track in terms of lives saved. That means recognising that hard-line enforcement of speed limits is not and never has been a useful road safety policy." Paul Smith, from campaign group Safe Speed, said: "Drawing up ways to catch more people speeding won't actually make the roads any safer, because people just look for a camera and slow down, then speed up again. "The speed awareness courses don't make people safer drivers, either. "All the courses do is misinform people that if they are within the speed limit, they will be safe. "That isn't the case, because circumstances and surroundings dictate a safe speed. "Teaching people to constantly keep an eye on the speedometer in the car doesn't make them a safer driver, and it's disappointing Merseyside is following this course." A spokesman for the camera partnership said: "A decision on the speed awareness course has yet to be taken by the chief constable, although a report recommending the idea has been produced." The report adds: "It has been accepted for many years that reducing excessive and inappropriate speeds on roads can reduce the number of collisions and severity of injuries. "The figures we have had for the first year have been very encouraging." The Partnership's figures show that, in the last year, the number of people killed or seriously injured at camera sites has fallen 42% with the number of minor personal injury collisions falling 8%. Graphs produced by the Partnership also suggest that the rising number of fixed penalty notices correlates directly with overall reductions in road casualties. But it also shows that, in previous years, as fixed penalty notices fell, so did deaths and injuries. davidhiggerson@dailypost.co.uk
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