FAMILIES who lost loved ones on Merseyside’s roads have urged transport bosses not to scrap speed cameras, after new evidence showed they were instrumental in deterring dangerous driving.

Figures released by the Department for Transport show that, since records began in 2004, not a single death or serious injury occurred at the site of any one of Merseyside’s 90 cameras.

But, despite the success, the cost of upgrading the cameras – estimated at around £4.5m – has prompted warnings from the region’s Road Safety Partnership that some or all cameras could be switched off.

Today, the road crash support network RoadPeace urged the Partnership and the Government to think again.

Ken Groom, 58, whose 16-year-old step-daughter, Rachel, was killed in a 2005 crash on the Ormskirk Road, close to Aintree racecourse, said cameras were an invaluable deterrent to speeding.

Rachel, a tourism student at Southport College, died when a car being driven by a friend collided with another vehicle.

The driver of the car Rachel was travelling in was later banned and fined for reckless driving on the night of the crash.

The former Wirral council social worker, who lives in Bootle, said: “When you lose someone on the roads, you become a lot more aware of stupid driving, people on mobile phones, that sort of thing. The statistics clearly show the cameras do work.

“We know that people do slow down when they see them there, and, as we know, the difference between killing someone and not killing someone can be as little as five miles an hour.

“Anything that enhances the safety of drivers and pedestrians is a good thing.

“With Rachel’s death, a camera would have meant that, for Rachel’s mother Phillipa and I, and for her sister, Jenny, there would have been no argument about what happened, the proof would be there.”