http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/opinion/viewarticle.aspx?id=269246
Safety cameras do save lives
Published on 04/08/2005
Mr Hutchinson’s thinly veiled accusation that safety cameras cost lives (Letters, August 2) highlights the usual mistakes perpetuated by people who cherry pick statistics to try to prove a point.
Cumbria Safety Cameras has never hidden the number of people killed on the county’s roads and these are updated on a monthly basis on our web site. They are also included in a monthly advertisement published in all the county’s weekly newspapers.
It is wrong to choose two of the lowest years for fatalities – 2001 and 2002 – and compare them with those who died during 2003 and 2004. Between 1994 and 2004 the number of people killed in road accidents in Cumbria has varied between 47 and 63, giving an 11-year average of 53.4.
No one has ever claimed that safety cameras are the sole means by which fatalities can be reduced. Indeed, as we monitor probably less than one per cent of the country’s road networks, it is impossible for us to do so.
However, in 2004 the number of people killed and seriously injured at the hotspots monitored by the cameras was reduced by almost 70 per cent, so we are succeeding in our core task.
Regarding the survey statistics , when market research surveys are carried out, the number of respondents is treated to a statistical weighting process. CN Research interviewed 400 respondents who were chosen at random from a telephone book. It ensured that quotas were apportioned to each age group and gender so the survey would be representative of Cumbria. Four hundred responses gives a + or - error of 4.7 per cent at 95 per cent confidence levels.
Finally, 73.5 per cent of people killed on the county’s roads in 2004 and 78 per cent so far in 2005 have been local residents. No matter how hard we and other partners try to reduce the tragedy of fatalities, it is ultimately down to the people who live and drive in Cumbria to reduce this catastrophic waste of human life.
Kevin Tea is communications manager for Cumbria Safety Cameras