IN his article (LET August 18), Mr Steven Ashworth of Blackburn, requested that I give answers to questions he posed on how the figure of £1million per road death was calculated and also, how many people had been killed or injured within a half mile radius of each traffic camera in Blackburn.

Taking each question as it comes, the £1million cost per road death is a government calculation. It features in Highways Economics Notes, specifically Note N. 1: 2001, prepared by the Department for Transport.

The sum is based on the fatality's expected loss of earnings, plus any non-wage payments such as national insurance contributions paid by their employer, as well as ambulance costs, the costs of hospital treatment, police costs, insurance administration and damage to property, as well as human costs.

Human costs represent the pain, grief and suffering of the fatality's relatives and friends and also the fatality's own intrinsic loss of enjoyment of life.

Regarding the number of people killed or injured within a half mile radius of each of Blackburn's traffic cameras, all readers need do is to log on to the Lancashire Partnership for Road Safety's own website at www.safe2travel.co.uk for a statistical breakdown.

I can assure Mr Ashworth and other Lancashire Evening Telegraph readers that traffic cameras can only be sited where there is a demonstrated need, i.e. such as on roads where speeding is a recognised issue and where casualty figures are deemed unacceptably high.

I would also like to make the point that I do not use the letters page of the Lancashire Evening Telegraph to justify my job, but rather to respond to readers' queries and correct misconceptions.

After all, the facts speak for themselves. At the end of the first year since the Lancashire Partnership for Road Safety launched, there were nine fewer road traffic accident deaths and 265 fewer injuries compared to the previous year.

IAN BELL, Project Manager, Lancashire Partnership for Road Safety, Preston.