WHICHEVER way you look at it, considering two hefty periods of each working day see the road blanketed with rush-hour traffic, the toll of shame recorded by Worcester's first speed camera is alarming.

What we know is that the City Walls Road camera has been operational on only two days a week since it began working a month ago.

In those eight days, 812 motorists were caught doing more than 30mph.

If the camera had been working six days a week, at the same rate, a total of 2,436 drivers would have seen that spine-chilling ticket drop through the letterbox.

What's more, the Safety Camera Partnership behind the camera's installation estimates that the number of speeders could be more than double than those recorded.

What proportion of the volume of traffic that represents is difficult to estimate - but the significance of the figures isn't.

They prove one of a number of thoughts about motorists. Either they have too little patience or concentration to stick within the speed limit; or they believe it's unnecessary; or they reckon it doesn't apply to them. Let's be honest, that includes most of us.

You don't need a long memory to recall the horrific injuries suffered on City Walls Road over the years, or much of an imagination to fill in the gaps or translate today's figures to other city roads.

If the camera succeeds in slowing traffic, then we'd look forward to another on New Road, a third on Woodgreen Drive, and so on.

The truth is that speed kills, unless it's killed first.