A NEW campaign to win support for speed cameras has been launched in the Medway area.

The cameras have been criticised and even attacked by irate motorists who have been clocked at high speeds.

But the new campaign by the Kent and Medway Safety Camera Partnership says high-speed crashes cost five times the price of a lung transplant.

A new leaflet - Saving More than Lives - says each serious injury collision costs £100,000. It is money that could be going to the Medway Maritime Hospital.

The partnership says in the past two years there have been 13,000 serious injury accidents as a result of high speeds.

"That money could buy a lung transplant for £23,000, a heart transplant for £16,500, five primary hip replacements costing £20,800 and provide 50 days funding at the special care baby unit (£15,150)" said Lorraine Collins, the local partnership's communications officer.

"The message as to what safety cameras can do to help a local hospital is quite simple. They reduce the speed at which people drive."

There are 800 people hurt in Medway each year in road accidents. A spokesman for Medway Maritime Hospital said: "With reduced speeds, drivers are less likely to hit pedestrians or collide with another car which means less people coming to accident and emergency departments which in turn frees up more resources, cuts waiting times and ultimately allows hospitals to offer people a better quality of care."

From next month more cameras are being installed in Medway. They will be in Best Street, Chatham, where 11 people were killed or seriously injured between 1998 and 2000, and at Snodhurst Bottom, Chatham, Maidstone Road, Rainham, and on Rainham High Street.

The partnership publishes details of all the cameras on its website, www.kentandmedwaysafetycameras.org.uk