The only speed cameras I feel are a good idea are ones I talked about in another comment. Ones that instead of issuing a ticket, they turn the light ahead red in time to catch the speeder.
I don't think red light cameras are all thateffective. That's usually a case of mistimed traffic lights and if they got an engineer out there to properly time them less people would be running yellows.
If we are talking about fatalities there are 2 situations you need to avoid. The most deadly crashes are not rear enders but t-bones in the case of vehicle collissions (sorry corsicanguppy but I'd rather people rear end each other than t-bone) and pedestrian collisions where a vehicle turns right on red into them.
So the best things to do are make sure the intersections are timed correctly so people do not run the lights, and improve the pedestrian safety through something like safer instersections where cars stop further back and can see the pedestrians much more clearly or by banning turning right on red, or ideally both.