oxford-speed-cameras-back

I’ve been keeping my eye on this topic over the last few days as for the first 48 hours or so, nothing other than ‘deaths and serious injuries on the roads had increased‘ had been released. However, an updated article from earlier on, just as the initial heat and interest around this started to die down suddenly shows a different picture:

• Slight Injuries:
  2009: 70; 2010: 55 (down since they were switched off);
• Serious Injuries:
  2009: 13; 2010: 13 (no change);
• Fatalities:
  2009: 0; 2010: 0 (no change); and
• Total Accidents:
  2009: 62; 2010: 60 (down since they were switched off).

Matching periods of 08/2009-01/2010 and 08/2010-01/2011, accidents and injuries at sites where the cameras have been placed have gone down, not up as is initially suggested.

To back up their figures, they need to cover the whole of Oxfordshire:

• Slight Injuries:
  2009: 982; 2010: 999 (slightly up since they were switched off);
• Serious Injuries:
  2009: 160; 2010: 179 (up since they were switched off);
• Fatalities:
  2009: 12; 2010: 18 (up since they were switched off); and
• Total Accidents:
  2009: 885; 2010: 867 (down since they were switched off).

This is not as clear cut as they’ve been making it out to be over the last two days and I don’t find it that surprising that it’s taken until now for the rest of these figures to be released. So, yes, while there is a significant increase in the amount of deaths (up 50%) and overall, injuries across the county are up 2.18%,injuries at camera sites are down 22.1%. This combined with the fact thataccidents are down 2.16% overall means that they have had to manipulate the statistics to back up their argument.

They have used a set of figures, loosely related to the ones they should have used, to justify a decision which I believe is in some way incorrect. £600,000 should be used to fund more police in cars to patrol the area, interact with the public and deter bad driving rather than just switching on camera.

After all: “Today the Police are switching back on Speed Cameras in the country after statistics show that accidents and injuries around camera sites have fallen” isn’t quite as catchy a headline!