More than 90% of all rural road injury crashes in 2006 did not involve exceeding a speed limit.

Of those crashes that in the police’s opinion could have involved excess speed, 2% were rated as 'very likely' to include speeding and 2% were rated as 'possibly' including speeding, a freedom of information request to Department for Transport has revealed.

However, the figures, which were obtained by the anti-speed camera pressure group, Safe Speed, are based on police officers’ opinions formed at the scene of the crash.

“The contributory factors are the opinions of police officers based on the evidence available to them at the time of reporting the accident,” explained a spokesman for the Department for Transport.

“As a result, some contributory factors may be less likely to be reported. The two factors directly relating to speed may be difficult to determine after the event, especially in less serious accidents.”

Despite this, Safe Speed’s Paul Smith says the figures prove that the UK’s speed camera policy is flawed.

"These figures make an absolute mockery of the speed camera programme.

"We have long known that it had failed to save lives and this is why - we never had a 'speeding problem' in the first place," he said.

“DfT must now own up to their mistake, scrap speed cameras and refocus national road safety resources on actually saving British lives."