ROAD safety where speed cameras have been installed has improved more in Lancashire than almost anywhere else in the country, a new report has found.

The county has come second in an independent study into the effects of cameras, beaten only by North Wales which had a 68 percent reduction.

Statisticians from University College London and PA Consulting, who compiled the report, evaluated the first three years of speed cameras and found the number of people killed or seriously injured at camera sites in Lancashire were down 58 percent.

The report entitled The National Safety Camera Programme: Three year Evaluation Report found that since the cameras had been used, there were 100 fewer deaths a year on Britain's roads, and 4,030 fewer people injured.

The results have been welcomed by road safety group RoadPeace, a charity which supports people bereaved or injured in road accidents. Pauline Fielding, North West co-ordinator for RoadPeace, said: "We advocate the use of speed cameras, but not that alone." She called for more traffic police and better education for pedestrians.

John Davies, project manager of Lancashire Road Safety Partnership, also welcomed the report, saying: "It's extremely positive, we are very pleased with the way the cameras are performing at the moment, and we hope the trend continues in the future."

However, the Association of British Drivers, which claims to be the 'voice of the driver' hit out at speed cameras. The organisation's road safety spokesman, Mark McAthur-Christie, said: "The quality of life for Britain's safest drivers has been drastically reduced, with millions of tickets being handed out in circumstances that are nothing at all to do with those that cause accidents. Drivers' lives are being made a misery for nothing."