Nearly 37,000 tickets have been issued to motorists since fixed speed cameras were introduced in Northern Ireland, the police have said.

The safety camera scheme was introduced in 2003 in a bid to stem the high rate of death and injury on local roads, and police said they are having an effect.

Since then 36,900 fixed penalty notices have been issued for excessive speed, each with a value of £60.

There are five fixed camera sites and a new one is planned between Bangor and Belfast.

There were 134 fatal accidents in Northern Ireland in 2005 and 113 so far this year.

The cost of a fatal accident to the economy is £1.384m, according the the Department for Transport in London.

This breaks down as £475,922 in lost output, £817 in medical and ambulance costs and £907,698 in what are labelled human costs.

The cost of a serious accident is £155,563, with £11,108 of this accounted for by medical and ambulance costs.

The total of fines imposed through the safety camera scheme in Northern Ireland, over the three years to the end of September 2006, was £2,214,000.

Police said cameras are only used in areas where they have identified a history of collisions resulting in death or serious injury and there is evidence of a speeding problem.

There are four standard fixed camera sites, all in the Belfast area, Saintfield Road, Antrim Road, Upper Newtownards Road and Springfield Road.

The speed enforcement camera system (SPECS) deploys digital safety cameras in pairs to monitor drivers' average speed between two fixed points.

One is on the main Belfast to Newry Road and another will also go on the Belfast to Bangor Road.

Mobile camera units are also used in a number of areas.

The PSNI have said they are analysing the data and the "initial indications will support that there has been a reduction in the number of people killed and seriously injured at the sites and routes enforced by cameras".

"Our message is simple - we want to stop you speeding - not catch you speeding," a PSNI spokeswoman said.

Police said that while they did not have the exact financial details at this stage, the camera scheme is meant to be self-financing - with any surplus being reinvested into making roads safer through enforcement and education.