This complaint is a little unconventional in that it concerns claims made in a
news release on the Kent & Medway Safety Camera Partnership website. However, I
believe that it is advertising, and I also believe it is very seriously
misleading, so I believe it is something that the ASA should deal with.
KMSCP have made absurd and dangerous claims about effectiveness of speed
cameras. They have attributed entire injury reductions entirely to cameras, when
in practice, those reductions have come from for a multitude of other reasons,
such as:
-vehicle safety improvements
-roads engineering improvements
-recession
-rocketing fuel and insurance costs pricing out younger drivers
-drivers diverting from camera sites
-accident relocation
-normal negative trend
-regression to mean
-under reporting
-random chance
If there is any doubt about this I can easily prove it.
The news release from KMSCP constitutes advertising as it will clearly influence
the public, and road safety decision makers such as councillors, who could
understandably be very impressed by such reductions and ask for any available
spend to be used on more as a result, KMSCP staff (who produced the news
release) benefiting directly by improved job security, when an honest and
competent news release from KMSCP would probably not have looked anywhere near
as good and could have resulted in
critical cash being used for more cost effective solutions.
This is therefore both misleading and dangerous advertising with obvious selfish
motives and the ASA must act.
Since I have brought this to the attention of KMSCP, far from correcting the
misinformation they have exaggerated it further by indicating a 72% reduction
from cameras in the first frame of their website. The home page and news release
screen shots were taking this evening (8th Nov 2012)
Here are the links:
http://www.kmscp.org/News/general-news/deaths-and-serious-injuries-down-by-72-at-fixed-speed-camera-sites-as-partnership-marks-10th-anniversary.aspx
http://www.kmscp.org/index.aspx
Not just for advertising accuracy but also for saving life, the ASA must insist
that KMSCP remove this appalling misinformation (including the signs they have
put out on the roads) immediately.