Swindon is celebrating a year without speed cameras by announcing a drop in fatal accidents, but don’t get over-excited.

The evidence is so slight as to be invisible. On stretches of road in Swindon covered by speed cameras, there was one fatal and four slight injury accidents between August 1 and October 31 2008. This year, without cameras, there two serious accidents, four slight ones, and no deaths.
 
To draw any conclusion is ludicrous, but it doesn’t stand in the way of the Daily Express or the Daily Mail. “Crash deaths drop to Zero after speed cameras axed” is the Express’s take. In addition, both report that the number of Swindon motorists caught speeding also fell - hardly surprising as speed cameras had been taken out.
 
The benefits of speed cameras have certainly been oversold, but that’s no excuse for damning them on the basis of no worthwhile data at all.