Two-thirds fewer deaths and serious injuries have occurred on Scotland's roads where safety cameras have been installed, according to the latest figures.
The number of deaths and serious injuries dropped from 337, in the three years before the cameras were installed, to 108 in the three years to April 2010.
The figures also show that over the same period, on average, personal injury numbers were down 48% (from 1,400 to 684) in areas which have speed cameras or traffic-light cameras, compared with the three years before they were installed.
Scottish safety camera statistics, published by Scotland's chief statistician, also show that the number of speed offences and red-light offences caught on camera has reduced year on year.
In the financial year 2005-06 around 127,000 people were issued with a conditional offer of a fixed-penalty notice as a result of offences recorded on the cameras.
In 2010-11 the figure was around 73,000, although this is up by around 10,000 on the previous 12-month period, attributed to both temporary speed limits at roadworks on major trunk roads and new traffic-light cameras giving greater coverage at existing sites.
Four out of five (82%) respondents to the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey 2010-11 agreed that people should see the use of safety cameras as a good thing.
Fewer vehicles are said to be breaking the speed limit at mobile-camera sites, in all speed-limit categories.
At fixed-speed camera sites, fewer vehicles broke the speed limit at 30mph zones (45% down to 14%) and at 70mph zones (33% to 26%), although more vehicles were caught breaking the limit at 40mph zones (18% up to 22%), 50mph zones (25% to 27%) and 60mph zones (12% to 17%).
Kathleen Braidwood, road safety officer for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents Scotland, said: "We welcome the publication of figures that show reductions in the number of people killed or seriously injured at camera sites. However, it is really disappointing that there has been a percentage increase in vehicles exceeding the speed limit at 40, 50 and 60mph fixed-camera sites, particularly because in Scotland we have so many rural roads that carry these speed limits.
"We know that three out of four road fatalities happen on rural roads. In Scotland, we really need to think about how we are driving on these roads, taking into account the constantly changing environment and what an appropriate speed is for rural roads.
"Safer driving on rural roads means not just travelling within the legal limit but also travelling at an appropriate speed for the conditions."
Around Scotland: the impact of speed cameras
* for the purposes of this graphic a serious accident is one that results in death or serious injury.
* information on fixed penalty notices for different regions begins on different dates. The figure given is for the first full year available.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article