| Re: Speed cameras 'have saved only HALF the lives ministers claim' |
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Group: uk.transport · Group Profile
Author: DerekDerek Date: Sep 10, 2008 09:00
On Wed, 10 Sep 2008 11:11:07 +0100, %%steve%%@ malloc.co.uk (Steve Firth)
wrote:
>Doug riseup.net> wrote:
>>> So, speed cameras undoubtedly save lives and reduce accidents.
>>
>> "Speed cameras have saved far fewer lives than the Government claims,
>> a study shows.
>>
>> Instead of saving 100 lives a year, the true figure could be less than
>> 50, they say.
>
>It's difficult to know where to start with this. Firstly it's obvious
>that you didn't bother to read the article, just the headline and then
>you snatched the first paragraphs.
>
>What the article does is to completely vindicate the work done by the
>late Paul Smith of Safespeed, he was right, regression to the mean is a
>significant factor and knee-jerk installation of cameras at "black
>spots" does turn out to be a naive policy instututed by mathematical
>illiterates.
>
On the hill where I live they installed 12 cameras (6 each side of
the road ) on 1.2 miles of road.
There had been two serious accidents but one involved drink & / or
drugs, and the other was a probable suicide.
I can't see how the presence of these cameras could have sensibly been
expected to influence either the transit van full of 6 pissants who at
3-30 am one Sunday morning ploughed into the corner of a 150 year old
graveyard at Ca. 70 mph exposing the graves (the road had been lowered
100 years ago) or the random suicidal solo motorcyclist with no local
connections who rode 243 miles from Glasgow and turned into our estate
chosen at random and ran smack into the first lamp post he came
across.
Still if their agenda was inclined that way they could represent this
as 7 fatalities in 2 years, must be an "Accident Black Spot". We
prefer to think it was the result of political shenanigans in the
council on the lines of "be careful what you wish for lest it come
true".
A local independant councillor had been making a nuisance of himself
campaigning for *one* camera, which had been refused over many years.
Derek
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