'Road Casualties Great Britain: 2001', just published by the Dept of Transport, shows that the number of people killed on our roads rose from 3,409 in 2000 to 3,443 in 2001 - an increase of 34 deaths.

"This is proof that the 'speed kills' campaign is failing to address the real road safety issues," said Association of British Drivers spokesman Ben Lovejoy. "While the Government has been raking in cash from speed cameras, our roads have not got any safer - instead they have grown more dangerous."

Of particular concern is the fact that child road deaths rose by 14%. The ABD believes that it is now a matter of urgency for the Government to shift its objectives from revenue-generation to genuine road safety initiatives.

"What is needed is an end to a single-minded and simple-minded focus on speed," argues Lovejoy. "It is time to take an intelligent look at the real causes of road accidents. In particular, we must focus far more on genuine road user education instead of breeding a generation of drivers who are scared to look up from their speedometers to see what is happening on the road in front of them. It is far more important that they see the child running towards the road than looking inside the car to see whether they are doing 30 or 35mph."

The ABD applauded the recent 'Now you see him' television commercials, and urge the government to follow this with further intelligent commercials geared to encouraging all road users to think about what they are doing rather than assume they are driving safely because they are within the speed limit.