MOTORING organisations today backed police claims that speed cameras are cutting road accidents in Gwent.

The Argus revealed yesterday that there were 127 fewer accidents in the county at camera sites last year compared with the previous 12 months. The figures came from the Safety Camera Partnership for Gwent, South Wales, and Dyfed Powys.

And motoring groups the AA and the RAC say they believe cameras are helping keep people safer on the roads.

RAC spokeswoman Char-lotte Latham said: "The cameras are there for specific safety reasons and they can only be a good thing as speed does kill."

South Wales AA spokeswoman Alison Birkett said: "Eighty per cent of our members support the cameras and we carry that through.

"The cameras have the same principle as chevrons placed at sharp bends.

"Just because the accidents stop happening doesn't mean you take them down."

Sergeant Jon Brown, from the Gwent police safety camera unit, said provisional accident data indicated there were significant reductions in accidents at the Cardiff Road camera site in Newport.

He added that since the installation of the camera in September 2002 there were just seven slight casualties and one serious injury in the area. In the three years before the camera was brought in there was a total of two serious accidents and 26 minor injuries at the site.

Sgt Brown said: "The police make no money out of speed cameras. The whole issue is about casualty reduction.

"Fatal road accidents cost £1million and serious road accidents £500,000, so every time one of these is avoided there is a huge knock-on saving for all the services involved."

The Government requires that at least four people be seriously injured or eight minor injuries be sustained on a 1km stretch of road during a three-year period for a static camera to be introduced.