Limehouse Link Tunnel - Road Safety Improvements

[handy]

From the Metro newspaper (a free sheet produced daily available to commuters in London):

There has been a dramatic reduction in the number of accidents in the Limehouse Link Tunnel after a digital safety camera system was introduced 2 years ago.

Figures from the London Safety Camera Partnership (LSCP) show that 17 people were killed or seriously injured as a result of collisions within the tunnel during the 3 years prior to the system being installed. In the 18 months since the cameras have been in operation there have been only 2 serious injuries in the tunnel

This is really good news, or perhaps someone on the Safespeed forum will come up with a bizarre reasoning as to why the cameras in the Limehouse Link Tunnel are actually not helping and making life more dangerous for all drivers in the south east and please won't somebody think of the children?

[johnsher]

Figures from the London Safety Camera Partnership (LSCP) show that 17 people were killed or seriously injured as a result of collisions within the tunnel during the 3 years prior to the system being installed. In the 18 months since the cameras have been in operation there have been only 2 serious injuries in the tunnel

I wonder what the figures were for 18 months prior... any guesses? 0? 1?

[malcolmw]

Of course I haven't seen the figures but I would be more interested in the number of incidents in which these people were killed. The 17 might have all been in one bus accident (sorry, this is extreme to put the point).

It may just be coincidental that cars in accidents were full of people.

[johnsher]

It may just be coincidental that cars in accidents were full of people.

exactly and if you do a google search you'll find that one of the accidents involved 5 teenagers in one car.

[SafeSpeed]

This is really good news, or perhaps someone on the Safespeed forum will come up with a bizarre reasoning as to why the cameras in the Limehouse Link Tunnel are actually not helping and making life more dangerous for all drivers in the south east and please won't somebody think of the children?

We don't need any 'bizarre' reasons, what we need to know is what the long term typical serious crash levels have been. Then we can estimate the contribution of the regression to the mean (RTTM) benefit illusion.

It's not difficult to imagine a couple of highly untypical crashes triggering a knee jerk reaction. Since the untypical crashes naturally fail to recur we may erroneously conclude that our kneee jerk reaction was helpful.

And of course the sneaky bastards have suddenly switched from quoting crashes to quoting casualties because it suits their purposes.

And of course everyone is now so fed up with the Police that they are less likely to report a crash.

And of course vehicles are getting safer every year So making injuries less likely.

And of course no one likes to drive under specs so some traffic with possible alternative routes has gone away.

And of course it wouldn't have been reported if crashes had gone up. (A bit like tossing a coin ten times and only calling out the result when it was heads... Wow - that's an amazing coin - every time you toss it it's a head.)

I could go on...

[SCE]

Of course I haven't seen the figures but I would be more interested in the number of incidents in which these people were killed. The 17 might have all been in one bus accident (sorry, this is extreme to put the point).

Not that extreme - in last few days there have been two crashes in Lincolnshire involving mini-buses.

From BBC website:

Foreign workers injured in crash
Two people were seriously injured when a mini bus overturned after leaving a Lincolnshire road.

Police said the accident happened close to the junction of the A17 and B1357 between Holbeach and Fosdyke on Saturday morning.

A total of 13 people, thought to be foreign workers, required hospital treatment but no injuries are thought to be life threatening.

No other vehicles were involved but police want to hear from witnesses.

Two people died when a car collided with a minibus on the B1168 near Spalding, Lincs, on Friday morning.

Car driver Dainus Bausis, 29, from Peterborough, died at the scene along with his passenger, who has not yet been named.

Fourteen people in the minibus - all believed to be Punjabi - were taken to hospitals in Boston and Peterborough with non life-threatening injuries.

The road will be closed for most of the day, a police spokesman said.

Sgt Dave Kay of Lincolnshire Police said: "The transit which was travelling towards Holbeach - part of that was on the wrong carriageway, and then it had a collision with the Renault Laguna.

"Our investigations will be leading on why that vehicle was on the wrong side of the carriageway and I have officers at Peterborough Hospital waiting to speak to the driver."

Thats 2 dead and 27 receiving hospital treatment from 2 accidents involving just 3 vehicles.