POLICE are launching a speed crackdown on drivers heading from Swindon to the south coast this summer.

Wiltshire Constabulary is targeting the busy A303, used by thousands of holidaymakers to travel to Devon and Cornwall.

In an effort to persuade drivers to keep within safe speed limits a combination of roadside safety cameras and mobile speed detection cameras will be used along the route.

Clive Nicholls, manager of the Central Road Safety Unit, said: "Making people more aware of the speed limits and helping them to understand the need to comply with them at all times will be a positive step towards improving safety on our roads.

"We don't want to catch drivers out, we just want them to slow down and travel at a safe speed, helping to prevent deaths and injuries on our roads."

Roadside safety cameras should now be bright yellow to make them more visible to drivers.

In Swindon, fixed cameras are sited at Blunsdon, Oxford Road, Queens Drive, South Marston (eastbound and westbound) and Chiseldon.

Wiltshire and Swindon Road Safety Partnership has been formed by Wiltshire Constabulary, the Crown Prosecution Service, the Highways Agency, Wiltshire County Council and Swindon Borough Council.

Also on board are the Wiltshire Magistrates' Courts Service and the National Health Service.

The partnership has been given Government permission to use camera-generated fines to pay for additional cameras and associated technology to reduce speeding and cut the number of crashes on our roads.

Pilot safety camera schemes around the country have reduced deaths and injuries by up to 40 per cent.

Wiltshire Constabulary Chief Constable Elizabeth Neville said: "Between 1998 and 2000 an average of 468 people were killed or seriously injured each year in road traffic collisions in Wiltshire and Swindon.

"Excess speed or inappropriate use of speed is held to be a factor in 33 per cent of collisions.

"The partnership is aware of research and experience which has consistently demonstrated that safety cameras work in reducing speed and casualties."

Ian Kendall, consultant in emergency medicine at Swindon's Princess Margaret Hospital, said: "If you are in a crash at high speed you are likely to sustain very serious injuries which could have long-term consequences like permanent disability."

Last year there were 74 personal injury collisions, 18 of which were either fatal or serious, on the 30-mile Wiltshire stretch of the A303.

Location details of fixed cameras can be obtained from the Wiltshire Constabulary website at www.wiltshire.police.uk.