One of the country's most eminent road safety experts is calling for a change in the law on speed cameras following the A23 death crash.

The inquests were heard this week on eight people killed when a driver speeding at up to 100mph crashed into an oncoming vehicle at Newtimber, north of Brighton, last May.

Lord Berkeley, the president of the Road Danger Reduction Forum, said the accident made a mockery of laws requiring a specific number of serious crashes before a stretch of road can be deemed dangerous enough for cameras.

He said: "It is ridiculous that more innocent people have to die before something can be done."

Speed cameras, which first appeared on English roads in 1992, can only be installed in areas with a history of road safety problems - at least four collisions per kilometre involving death or injury must have happened in the previous three years.

In addition, at least one driver in five involved in an accident should also have exceeded the speed limit.

An inquest on Wednesday heard Mitch Treliving, 19, of Tilgate Parade, Crawley, was speeding at up to 100mph and swerving as he drove with four friends towards Brighton. The BMW he was driving crashed over the central reservation and into a Land Rover Freelander in the northbound lane.

Eight people, including a two-year-old boy, died from multiple injuries.

But the 65-year-old Labour peer, who was today backed by relatives of A23 crash victims and other road safety campaigners, told The Argus: "It really is terrible - innocent lives have been lost. At the time of this accident I put some questions down in the House of Lords to get a speed camera but the answer was that we weren't having one.

"As soon as we know who the new transport minister is I will certainly be using this crash as an example to push for a change in the law and get rid of this rule. Police or local authorities should be able to put speed cameras up wherever they want."

The A23 has been the scene of several high-speed crashes in the last three years, although no stretch of the dual carriageway has had a sufficient concentration to qualify for cameras.

On October 8, 2003, a 19-year-old man was killed when his Nissan Sunny skidded off the southbound carriageway north of the A27 junction.

Another man died in a crash at Pyecombe on July 18, 2003. Two lorries crashed on the southbound carriageway of the A23 near Pyecombe on August 19, 2003.

Three cars crashed on the northbound carriageway of the A23 at Newtimber on September 10, 2003, although no one was seriously hurt. A car hit a crash barrier and ended up facing the wrong direction on the A23 at Pyecombe on November 14, 2003.

Former Albion striker Lee Steele suffered facial and head injuries after crashing his car on the A23 near Pyecombe in December 2001.

More than 62,000 drivers in Sussex were fined £60 for breaking speed restrictions in the 12 months up to April last year.

Ministers insist speed cameras increase safety. An independent report last year claimed they saved 100 lives annually. Recent research found cameras can reduce deaths by more than two thirds at dangerous sites.

Pyecombe Parish Council lobbied for better road signs and tougher speed limits after a rush-hour pile-up on the A23 on January 30, 1998.

Emma Rogers, of the Sussex Safety Camera Partnership, said: "Speed cameras are really a last resort because the strict criteria are there to prove cameras are not just put up to raise revenue. If we just put them everywhere people would complain."

Before April 1 roads were not considered for cameras until there were eight accidents in a three-year period, four of which were serious or fatal.

Gloria Marshall, the mother of A23 crash victims Aaron Sharpe, 20, and Katherine Sharpe, 18, said: "It is a fast stretch of road and motorists regularly exceed the limit. Just because there have not been eight accidents at that site doesn't mean there haven't been eight or more in the three-mile stretch covering that area. One would have thought eight deaths would have been sufficient criteria by itself."

Newtimber Parish Council clerk Andrew Clay said: "I think 70mph is a reasonable limit on the A23 but that doesn't mean we should wait for four serious accidents before we can put a camera up to slow people down."