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| News Story 14. | News Headlines. |
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| This Article was written by Ray Massey: [Transport Editor:] it was publish in Britain on 8th. September, 2004... by 'The Daily Mail'. | |
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Are speeding death figures being 'sexed up' to justify more cameras? |
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| As advertising watchdog dismisses claim that breaking the limit causes 1-in-4 fatalities.... |
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| Speed camera partnerships were yesterday accused of 'sexing up' statistics to raise more cash. The charge was made after one such body was criticised for wrongly claiming a quarter of road deaths are caused by drivers breaking the limit. The Advertising Standards Authority said the London Safety Camera Partnership's claim was misleading and could not be justified by fatal accident statistics. |
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| Motoring groups said the adjudication proved that cash-for-cameras partnerships were 'sexing up' statistics to justify their existence and increase revenue. They believe that only a fraction of fatal accidents involve drivers exceeding the speed limit. The Association of British Drivers said it was another case of 'lies, damned lies and dodgy speed camera statistics'. |
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| It called for an end to propaganda produced by the 42 partnerships, set up as a flagship Labour Government policy, that use money raised in fines to fund more traps. The bogus casualty claim was made in a leaflet from the London Partnership, which comprises the Metropolitan Police and local councils. |
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| It said: 'Speeding causes over a quarter of all deaths on London's roads.' But a motorist complained because speed - rather than breaking the speed limit - was a contributory factor in the fatalities, not the prime cause. The advertising watchdogs agreed. |
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| The partnership said its 1-in-4 claim had been based on an analysis of accident records by officials from Mayor Ken Livingston's Transport for London. The records, compiled by the Metropolitan and City of London police forces, show that 228 of the capital's 850 road deaths in the three years to December 2003 were cause by one of four factors. |
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| They were driving to fast for the road or prevailing traffic conditions, going faster than other drivers, losing control at the wheel and getting to close to the vehicle in front. The Partnership then extrapolated, wrongly, that the figures meant speeding was the 'main cause' of 26.8 per cent of fatalities. |
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| As corroboration, it also quoted Devon & Cornwall Constabulary figures that 32 per cent of deaths nationally were caused by speeding - equivalent to 1,200 annually. |
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'The claim was misleading' |
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| But the ASA said none of the four factors necessarily involved a vehicle exceeding the speed limit. Its ruling said: 'We consider that the claim would be understood by readers to mean that vehicles that exceeded the speed limit had caused a quarter of all deaths on London's roads and not that speed was merely a contributory factor in a quarter of fatal accidents. |
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| 'The Authority concluded that the claim was misleading'. It upheld the complaint and banned the Partnership from distributing the offending leaflet circulated as a flyer in a newspaper. |
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| The Department for Transport regularly quotes figures from the Transport Research Laboratory suggesting speed is a contributory factor in about 33 per cent of fatal accidents,*1 23 per cent of serious injury accidents and 13 per cent of all accidents. |
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| But motoring critics say that studies in Avon, Durham and Canada suggest that only a third of all accidents involve drivers exceeding the speed limit,*1 with many of those joy-riders and criminals. |
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| ABD spokesman Mark McArthur Christie said: 'The partnerships sex up their figures and spin them to suit their argument.' |
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| Paul Smith, of the Safe Speed campaign group, said: 'Definitions about excessive and inappropriate speed are hazy. But it's good to see the truth finally coming out. Road safety depends on true and accurate figures.' |
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| *1. Not exactly sure what point they're trying to make here... as far as we can make out - the first point... "speed is a contributory factor in 33 per cent of fatal accidents... etc." and the next point... "that only a third of all accidents involve drivers exceeding the speed limit" would suggest that The Department for Transport are not exaggerating... but the way it is written would suggest that 'motoring critics' are implying that they are exaggerating. |
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