Some strong claims have been made today for the A77 'SPECS' digital speed cameras.

To make these claims as a genuine indication of improved safety is absurd, says Safe Speed.

- According to Department for Transport only 1 in 20 injury crashes (5%) involve any speeding vehicle. If only 5% of crashes involve speeding how is it supposed to be possible that a speed camera can reduce crashes by 50%?

- The A77 was widely reported as being subjected to a £20m improvement programme. How much of this in place? How much of the reduction in crashes claimed is due to engineering improvements?

- It's known that thrill seeking road users will avoid speed camera routes.This doesn't prevent crashes - they just happen somewhere else.

- It's known that speed cameras cause a degree of traffic reduction as some motorists prefer to find routes without cameras.

- We expect that there's been a degree of 'cherry picking' in the comparison groups. It's often possible to 'talk up' the figures by choosing 2 years instead of three years - or similar. Then there's the option of which crash severity group they have chosen to highlight. Were fewer people killed? I doubt it or they would have been shouting that from the rooftops.

- SPECS cameras were only considered for the A77 because of a particularly bad spell. After a particularly bad spell, it's common for crashes to reduce back down to the long term trend anyway. This effect, called regression to the mean, is frequently claimed as a benefit for speed cameras. But doing so is no more and no less than a fraud.

Paul Smith, founder of SafeSpeed.org.uk, said: "These claims are nonsense and we don't believe them. It simply does not make sense to get a 50% reduction in crashes while purporting to address the cause of 5% of crashes. Some people think that speed cameras are 'magic accident reducing machines' - and wouldn't it be nice if they were! Unfortunately there's no such thing."

"Speed cameras have been a road safety disaster. I hate to see self-serving spin and wild claims. It should be obvious that bad information in road safety will cause life saving resources to be misallocated - and this is undoubtedly bad information. We're going to have to scrap speed cameras before we can get road safety back on track."

"Speed cameras reduced crashes by 50%? Don't make me laugh! We're not fools!"