Dorset Speed facebook group was shut down!!
Here is the link to the new group
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4th December 2007: Statistics distorted to attempt
to show speed policy is working
Yes, it's that bad. The DfT want to tell us things
are getting better, when they are getting worse.
You can find plenty of articles about this with a quick Google, here are
some examples:
Speed cameras: the twisted truth (Telegraph)
The case for speed cameras destroyed in a flash (Telegraph)
Speed camera safety record in doubt as watchdog questions statistics (Daily Mail)
Here are some extracts:
"The more the government's case was examined, the more statistically dubious it
became. So determined was it to claim that speed was the chief cause of accidents,
it would stop at nothing in misrepresenting the evidence."
"In 2004 Smith was able to reveal even worse news for the government. For some time
he had argued that, far from reducing the risk of accidents, speed cameras actually
increased it, by distracting drivers and causing them to act unpredictably. This
was now confirmed by another report from the TRL, Report 595, commissioned by the
Highways Agency, looking into the effect of cameras on motorways."
"Statistics watchdogs warned that the decade of greatest speed-camera growth had
not seen a massive reduction in deaths and injuries. Instead it had remained largely
static and was now going up"
"The discrepancies led to angry claims last night (Sun) that ministers were seeking
to 'sex up' their statistics with 'dodgy' figures in a bid to justify their controversial
'cash for cameras' policy"
"But critics and now Government statisticians say the figures are 'flawed' because
police are 'under-reporting' the figures. So instead of ministers hitting targets
on casualty reduction, the Government will miss them by a country mile."
"Latest police figures suggest that about 59.4 people per 100,000 are killed or
seriously injured - down from 85.9 per 100,000 a decade ago.
But figures based on hospital admissions have remained broadly constant over the
period at about 90 per 100,000 are killed or seriously injured."
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