Having spent an enormous amount of money on a motor cycle with state-of-the-art camera technology, it's only to be expected that it will be used to catch errant motorists exceeding the speed limit.

Of course its main purpose is to patrol the rural areas, the areas where it's ideally suited to park on narrow lanes and on verges in villages. Well that is the idea as stated by Dave Frampton, the manger of the quaintly named Safety Camera Partnership. Reality of course is different from the theory and in order to justify the purchase the motor cycle must of course produce revenue and where better to site the unit for this purpose than on a bridge at Cricklade looking north along the rural A419.

Of course it's mandatory to ensure that no one approaching the bridge is given any pre-warning of the unit as this would be so unfair, accordingly the motor cycle is parked in such a way to make its identifying markings all but invisible.

Of course speeding is wrong and not to be condoned but the statistical distortions used by the camera partnership to justify an ever growing empire should be challenged by every motorist in the county.

Firstly, Mr Frampton maintains that over 33 per cent of all accidents are caused as direct result of speeding. This is an unproven figure which is at best dubious. A more accurate measure of the effect of excessive speed as a causation factor for collisions suggests that only seven per cent of collisions are a result of excessive speed. A significantly lower figure than 33 per cent.

In order to come to the conclusion that 33 per cent of collisions occur as a result of speed, the camera partnership and its spokespeople have to make some pretty impressive assumptions.

The major assumptions are that a collision/accident occurring as a result of sudden braking, careless driving, following too close, loss of control and poor overtaking are all, by an amazing process, caused by excessive speed.

Surely, this is pressing the case a little too hard. Why doesn't the camera partnership just come out and say vehicle movement is a factor in any collision at least that's an honest statement even though quite absurd?

As a motorist of over 35 years and one who does over 50,000 mile per year I can assure Mr Frampton and his team that excessive speed alone is not the major contributory factor to any collision.

Poor driving ability is far more likely to lead to an accident. Speed Revenue Cameras catch speeding motorists they don't reduce accidents.

Des Morgan

Caraway Drive