YOUR paper seems to have missed the most serious cause for complaint about speed cameras, even though it was right there in your photo last week.

The police had fitted an amber beacon and not a blue one.

People seeing it have a false sense of security and won't check their speedos. If there are "police" signs on the back doors it's not there on all vehicles it's too small to be identified at any distance.

There are several of these vehicles around.

The link between vehicle speeds and road fatalities is a myth, dispelled by reading through Road Casualties Great Britain and its predecessor publication, Road Accidents Great Britain.

There is a table with details of accidents, casualties etc.

If examined, what becomes obvious is that all these cameras are not delivering the goods in terms of road deaths.

Closer examination reveals that almost 30 years (from the mid-60s) of little more than token enforcement of speed limits brought a steady decline in fatalities.

During the early 90s, road deaths fell very quickly and it's significant that that was the time that officials began talking of vehicle speeds as a "problem".

The result, as the introduction of cameras and a graph will show, is that the steady fall in fatalities came to an abrupt halt at the same time.

It may not be proof positive of murder but it is a smoking gun.

Ralph Ingham-Johnson, Transport consultant, (Address supplied)