Sir – In spite of the expostulations of petrolheads and certain members of the motoring lobby, the evidence appears to be that speed cameras can help to reduce road deaths and injuries. Speed can kill. Breaking the speed limit is a crime.

What then could be the arguments against increasing the fines, and relentlessly exacting them, for being caught speeding: first, in order to pay the full cost of mounting and maintaining speed cameras; and second, much more fully to help pay for the cost of rescuing and dealing with victims of road accidents caused by speeding? I write as one who, a subsequent trial decided, was nearly killed by an out-of-control speeding car.

Richard Wilson, Oxford