People will die because of new government moves to make speed cameras more visible and restrict them to accident blackspots, MPs have warned.

The alert, from the powerful Commons transport select committee, also comes with stinging criticism of the government for making "slow progress" on reducing road casualties.

We do have a very odd attitude to road deaths in this country

Gwyneth Dunwoody

Its report - which comes only a month after it made a scathing attack on the government's 10-year transport plan - calls for speed cameras to cover the whole country by 2004.

But the MPs behind it also blame the media for hampering efforts against speeding by portraying it as a nuisance, rather than a cause of unnecessary deaths.

And they have called on the government to show proper leadership over the issue, and to "make it very clear that speeding is unacceptable".

Committee chairman Gwyneth Dunwoody told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We do have a very odd attitude to road deaths in this country.

Gwyneth Dunwoody has led MPs' criticism of transport policy

"If you kill nearly 3,500 people every year in this country, either in any other form of transport or by some form of public health problem, everybody would be screaming for action.

"There is a direct connection between speed and road deaths."

Transport Minister John Spellar told the same programme that there had been progress on reducing road deaths but acknowledged there was more to be done.

He said that was particularly the case on rural roads where the number of head-on crashes remained a concern.

Teenage tragedy

The transport committee describes as "unreasonable" new rules meaning speed cameras must be painted yellow and imposing limits on where they can be sited.

"Crashes do not just occur at accident blackspots," says the report.

"There was no scientific research to support this decision. People will die as a result."

In 2000, 3,400 people were killed on the UK's roads but MPs say that number could be reduced to less than 1,000 with the right measures.

"Recent pandering to a vociferous motoring lobby has obscured the simple truth - speeding traffic kills.

Paul Hamblin Council for Protection of Rural England

The number of serious injuries is falling, says the report, but deaths have been at the same high level for several years.

The report was welcomed by Paul Kerr, who lost his teenage son to a speeding driver.

He told BBC News: "It's in my face every day and people have to realise it could happen to them."

Among the report's other conclusions are:

• make speed limits 30mph through villages
• scrap national speed limit signs and use numbers
• use more 20mph speed limits
• no further cuts to traffic police
• media should help highlight the problem
• accidents cost the country �17bn a year
• most likely speeders are young, professional males
• tougher penalties for speeding

RAC Foundation executive director Edmund King said the committee seemed to want more speed cameras hidden away and more restrictions on motorists.

But a Department for Transport spokesman said painting cameras yellow would encourage drivers to slow down and assure them they were not a revenue-raising mechanism.

The department also said moves had been made towards the target of cutting the number of people killed or seriously injured by 40% by 2010.