Drivers hold M4 speed camera demo

Protesters met at two service stations before the protest began

The organisers of an anti-speed camera demonstration which saw hundreds of vehicles driving slowly along the M4 have hailed the protest a success.

The motorists travelled in two convoys at about 56mph across a 30-mile stretch of the motorway in Wiltshire.

M4 Protest said just over 400 vehicles took part in the action.

Sgt Nick Blencowe said about 12% of all people killed and seriously injured on Wiltshire roads happened on this stretch of motorway.

Traffic disruption

The protest group said it hoped the action would "show safe driving is too complex to be measured in miles per hour".

Paul Smith, road safety spokesman for M4 Protest, said: "It couldn't have gone better, it was like a picnic."

He said the group had counted about 210 vehicles setting out eastbound from Leigh Delamere with another 200 leaving Membury to head west.

"The point wasn't to cause traffic disruption," he said. "We didn't want to cause traffic disruption and we didn't try to cause traffic disruption.

The protesters were given a police escort along the route

Robin Summerhill, a spokesman for M4 Protest, said: "We are not condoning speeding.

"We just feel that far too much emphasis is now placed on speeding and not enough is being done to combat other motoring offences such as driving without insurance and dangerous driving.

"After £700m of fines, road deaths are going up, yet the greedy camera partnerships simply keep expanding."

The Wiltshire Safety Camera Partnership recently introduced marked vans at fixed, permanent sites, along a 40-mile stretch between Bath and Hungerford.

Sgt Nick Blencowe, from the partnership, said: "We have about 12% of all people being killed and seriously injured on Wiltshire roads happening on this stretch of motorway and that's quite unacceptable.

"We are charged with reducing death and injury on the roads. If we ignore the motorway we are ignoring a major part of that problem."