Police traffic surveillance van Picture Ref: 25104-39FROM noon today drivers on the M4 in Wiltshire face a £60 fine for driving nine miles per hour over the speed limit.

As reported in later editions of yesterday's Advertiser, speed cameras in marked vans will operate from bridges between junctions 14 and 18.

It is hoped they will cut down on the many accidents on that stretch from Hungerford, past Swindon, to Bath which has become prone to accidents.

Insp Wayne Smith, of Swindon traffic police, believes the checks will make a difference.

"Accidents are often due to poor driving. Speed cameras make a difference because they make people reduce their speed.

"It's very important that people are made aware of the fact that their speed is a contributing factor in accidents."

But he said it's not just speed that causes accidents driver behaviour is often to blame.

"Often it is driver's behaviour and inattention and the fact that they drive too close to the vehicle in front of them," said Insp Smith.

"The M4 is a nice straight road which is wide with safety barriers so there is no reason why anybody should hit anything at all.

"But they do drive too close to other cars and they don't change their driving habits to accommodate changes in the weather that is how accidents happen."

On Saturday the Adver reported how there have been 14 accidents between junctions 16 (Swindon) and 17 (Chippenham) on the M4 in the last month.

Wiltshire and Swindon Safety Camera Partnership is due to say today that the casualty rate on the M4 is higher than the average motorway and that it easily meets the Government's eligibility criteria for speed cameras.

Max Phesse, of the Wiltshire and Swindon Safety Camera Partnership, is concerned about the increase in M4 accidents.

He said: "Speed is a contributory factor. Statistics have proved that cameras do reduce serious injury accident rates. A lot of accidents are due to the wrong speed at the wrong locations."

Drivers will be alerted by signs on approach roads that they are entering a speed-trap area but they will not be told exactly where the vans are parked.

North Wiltshire Tory MP James Gray said that the erection of speed cameras along the motorway in his constituency was for Labour's "politically correct, money-making reasons."

Mr Gray said that if the Tories are voted into power they will raise the speed limit on motorways to 80mph.

"The M4 is virtually straight between those junctions," said Mr Gray, whose 90,000-strong constituency spans junctions 16 and 18 of the M4.

"I cannot think of any dangerous stretches. I am not aware of any safety reason why cameras should be there."

But former South Swindon MP Julia Drown, who is attending today's launch near Junction 15, said: "The Tories are trying to make political capital out of what should be a serious debate over road safety.

"You only need to talk to one family who have lost someone due to speeding to know that more can be done to change our attitudes to speeding."

Diana Milne