YOUR recent article on more speed cameras for Worcester includes a quote from RoSPA claiming excessive speed causes a third of traffic accidents.
This figure might make the enthusiastic deployment of cameras justifiable - if it was actually true.
Not surprisingly, statistics have been bent out of all recognition. The information on which this claim is based comes from an independent enquiry into the causes of accidents carried out by the police.
They found that an excess of speed was actually a factor in only 7.3 per cent of accidents. Turning this into 33 per cent is a conjuring trick of which even David Blaine would be proud!
To increase its impact, excessive speed is grouped with other reasons, such as weather and so on, none of which imply speeding.
This manages to swell the statistics up to 30 per cent and this is conveniently rounded up to one third.
This sort of deceit is used to justify more cameras, more traffic calming measures, more speed restrictions and so on.
JAN SOKOLOWSKI,
Worcester.
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