Road safety activist Paul Smith yesterday launched an official petition asking Prime Minister Tony Blair to end the use of speed cameras in the UK. The petition, available on the prime minister's official website (view petition) claims that the number of road deaths and injuries has not fallen after fifteen years of speed camera use.

"A proper examination of the case leaves absolutely no doubt that speed cameras have made road safety worse," Smith said.

The Department for Transport yesterday reported that provisional figures showing road fatalities last year were up one percent from 3,177 to 3210, despite the use of 6000 speed cameras throughout the country. The Safe Speed road safety campaign had estimated that the number of road deaths should actually have fallen by at four to five percent as a result in advances in trauma care and improvements in vehicle engineering.

"Something else must be going badly wrong," Smith said. "And we know exactly what it is. We have the wrong road safety policy and it's making our drivers worse. Speed cameras and 'speed kills' policy is badly affecting driver skills and especially driver attitudes."

Another petition, sponsored by the Association of British Drivers, asks Prime Minister Blair to scrap a proposed congestion tax. Nearly one million motorists have signed the petition so far. (view petition)