Safe Speed Forums

I see that there have been no news stories added to the Cumbria Safety Camera Partnership's website since July.
I wonder if they will put out a news release shortly about the appalling record of fatalities this year, or whether they will keep their heads down and hope that nobody in the local media notices?

Perhaps they will reveal the results of yet another survey, telling us how many people responded in favour of speed cameras.
Actually, I think it usually asks:
Do you agree that the use of safety camera should be supported as a method of reducing casualties.
If they asked:
Do you think we should continue with speed cameras even though fatalities are higher than the years BEFORE we had them?
I think the answer would be slightly less than supportive!

So how about Three fifths of respondents agree that cameras mean that dangerous drivers are now more likely to get caught?
This last month a national newspaper revealed that Cumbria had a higher incidence of drink drivers - these are the ones considered most dangerous, who DONT get caught by speed cameras.
I cannot find statistics for careless/reckless driving convictions - perhaps somebody could help me out - but they dont seem much to crow about.

Two thirds of respondents agree that fewer accidents happen on roads where cameras are installed.
Hmm. Those two thirds of respondents obviously dont see the connection between dead people, the roads they were on, and the presence of cameras on that same road.
December has seen two fatalities on the M6 - one involving a member of Tayside traffic police. I dont suppose the cameras played any part in preventing ANY accidents on the M6, but I would welcome evidence to the contrary.

Nearly three quarters of respondents agree that the primary aim of safety cameras is to save lives.
Of course they do - the CSCP have a full time propaganda officer to reinforce this belief - fostered by their title "Safety Camera Partnership"
If it was called the "Cumbria Abject Failure to Reduce Fatal Accidents Partnership" it would be unwelcome, but get even MY support!

Finally:
Cumbria Safety Camera spokesman Kevin Tea commented: “Some of the results were pleasantly surprising. While 45 per cent of those surveyed said that the use of cameras had made them change the way they drove, this figure rose to 58 per cent in the 16-24 age group, a sector we thought we may not have been getting through to. This age group represents a high proportion of those killed and seriously injured and we need to make them aware of their vulnerability.
Despite 58% of the 16 - 24 age group claiming they modified/changed the way they drive, they continued to represent a significant proportion of accident victims.
Perhaps "changed the way they drive" needs to be qualified.
In the 1980's, many of the little back lanes around Kendal and Windermere were full of drivers who thought they could avoid the risk of being breathalysed by driving long and tortuous routes home - e.g. The Brown Horse at Winster, via Crook, Gated road to Ings, Applethwaite Common road to Low Borrans, A592 and Birthwaite Road to Windermere!
Despite the 20, 30 and 40 mph limits on the Crook Road, many motorists take to this road to avoid Ings, and ignore the limits completely.
I recently was passed by a local butchers van which came close to doubling the Crook speed limits, with little fear of detection.

I suspect the CSCP propaganda machine is praying for another news event to take attention from their year end figures even as we prepare for the New Year festivities.

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

I think 2006 has finsihed with 59 fatals - that's the worst since 1999 (62) and the worst since CSCP started in business.

They've been operating for nearly 4 years now, which is long enough to judge if they have been effective. Ok 2005 was better (45) but still not the best year in the last 10 (1998 - 44).

I wonder what CSCP's propeganda will be this time to explain away their failures -

"KSI's are down, we are successful"
"You can't take one year in isolation" - err, that's what they did last year when fatals were lower....
"We can't be everywhere...." - just as well given the numbers killed at their monitored sites...

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That's how Nazi Germany started. They'll be burning books next. (Brian Noble, Wigan coach - updated 20/4/06!!).

Oh yes... I can feel another letter to the paper coming on - round about the 4th anniversary of their starting operations!

We must all accept that, even though they (the Pratnership employees) now realise how they have failed - and in their hearts they will know this - they will continue to take their salaries despite that failure.
Of themselves, they will never admit their failure. Well, it's not really their failure after all, it's failure of the policy which created the organisation which now pays their salaries.
Admission of responsibility can only come from those who had the authority to create the partnership in the first place, and one might wonder exactly where the buck stops in that organisation. There are so many 'partners' that one in isolation cannot do anything, and politically it would be unlikely that as a 'body corporate' (or whatever the legal definition is) no one individual holds sway.
Maybe the media could embarrass them sufficiently to get some sort of result, but the cash will always speak for itself and to suggest disbandment and the consequent redundancy would be unpalatable to some, especially with the cost of redundancy pay to compansate the holders of the 'non-jobs' for the loss of their income.
It's about politics and cash now, more so than it's ever been, and not at all about road safety.
Look again at the now-established facts:

Vehicles exceeding the speed limit are involved in only 3% to 5% of all casualty accidents.
Fatals are up in the region, despite improved road engineering, safer vehicles and better para-medic and in-hospital medical advances.
SI's are claimed to be down, but no more than would be expected by better vehicle engineering. However, NHS figures are at some variance with the Partnership figures and actual SI's may be the same or higher than pre-Pratnership times, again despite the other factors which would improve overall figures as they did in the 40 years, year-on-year, before the cameras became seen as the 'magic bullet' for casualty reduction.
Prosections for careless, dangerous and drink-related driving offences have all dropped due to reductions in Traf-Pol activities.

So, it's just about the money and the politics of appearing to be doing something, instead of addressing the actual and identifiable causes of accidents.
One thing is for certain, the Pratnerships will lie and cheat and obfuscate and 'spin' to keep their jobs at all costs, despite the neutral or, with the concurrent reduction in TrafPol activity, negative impact they are having on road safety. I, for one, object to paying the salaries for non-jobs, even if the cash to do so comes from those who are driving at slightly over a speed limit. It's really just another tax to create a few jobs and make a big profit from nothing except the pockets of ordinary people. Personally I would rather pay an additional income tax to fund 'proper' road policing by human beings.
How on earth do we rid ourselves of this 'headless chicken' and get back to real road safety policy?

Why dont CSCP just change their name to Cumbrias Casualty Reduction and Accident Partnership or C-CRAP for short?

In response to a question tabled by Viz magazines Roger Melly yesterday ,Kevin Tea the spokespiece for C-CRAP said:

"Its not our fault people keep dying. Cant you understand, we're an Accident prevention organisation, some of our Partners arent pulling their weight. I love my cameras. Can i go now? ".

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"Safety" Scamera Partnerships;
Profitting from death and misery since 1993.

Believe nothing- Question everything.

Well STILL no figures on the CSCP website for December, to fill in the gap, and finalise the figure for 2006.
BUT today's Westmorland Gazette carries an advert for the CSCP, which has to be seen to be believed.

If you dont fancy exposing your shameful 2006 statistics, why not just put in a BLANK graph for 2007

...................................
And no, I did not photoshop that 7 in place of the six - it looks like that in the Gazette!

NOTE that most fatal crashes occured on TUESDAYS, FRIDAYS & SUNDAYS.
You would have thought they could have been a bit more helpful, and told us what percentage of the fatals on those days were female/male, and what colour underwear they wore!
Since I live in the county (65% OF FATALITIES) I'm seriously considering not travelling on those days, and applying for a reduction in my insurance premiums! However I am not in the 16-20 age group (nearly 25% of fatals) which is re-assuring, because the SAFETY Camer Partnership seems unable to do anything about the numbers dying on our roads....

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

I've not seen the advert yet personally, so difficult for me to complain, but anyone who has seen it in the Gazette should complain to the ASA.

The graph bit is, quite frankly, a blatant lie. 2007 is of course nearly 4 weeks old. The graph implies there have been no KSI's so far this year, which is untrue. I am aware of 1 K so far and a number of SI's at least.

Even though I've not seen it, I feel a letter to the Gazette editor coming on

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That's how Nazi Germany started. They'll be burning books next. (Brian Noble, Wigan coach - updated 20/4/06!!).

I'm trying to figure out what's REALLY gone on here... Did someone create a graph of 2006 within the advert, not like the look of it and changed it?

The '7' must have been dropped into the '2007' for a reason.

Obviously at this time of year it's easy enough to make a typo and put 2006 when you mean 2007...

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Hmm. Not sure which drawing package they use, but surely you would just retype the 7 with the same font/formatting. Either way it's amateurish, and the blank graph is a falsehood as Kendalian points out.

Their website still has not put the December figures in yet, and it should really be on the graph in the advert as 2006 - it's one month since the November figures appeared, and this should be the final graph of 2006 figures, until the January figures are available.
I wrote to the Gazette in December after the last avert anticipating the possible skirting around the December final total... but I did not anticipate this dogs dinner of a press release!
I've written again pointing out my previous letter which desite a call from the editor was not published.

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

I think what might have happened is the advert copy was accidentally sent over without the graph, and then the paper called and told them, and said "hey, what's up with this graph?" and they said "just put a 7 over the 6 and people will assume it's meant to make you think". The paper wouldn't have changed the ad without their permission though, that is a big no-no in the publishing world.

The simplest explanation is that the ad was designed to show a blank 2007 graph, the text '2006' was a typo (natural at this time of year), but at a late pre-press stage the typo was spotted and corrected to 2007.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

I wont see the original "advert" in the flesh till next weekend, but the way I'm interpreting this is that CSCP are trying to show 2007 is "blank" so far for KSI's as at 26/1/07. This is quite simply, untrue.

I reckon the 6 or 7 bit is a red herring. If they meant to show 2006 then they would have to show a full graph (they've been doing this regularly in the Gazette as Ernest will confirm!) The dodgy print is probably down to the printers, for whatever reason.

Let's check the CSCP website tomorrow to see if there's an explanation given

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That's how Nazi Germany started. They'll be burning books next. (Brian Noble, Wigan coach - updated 20/4/06!!).

Or maybe the Gazette/printers have c***ed it up and not printed the bars on the graph AND changed it to 2007!

If this is the case, frankly it serves CSCP right for trying to advertise their failures.

Tomorrow morning, CSCP HQ Penrith, copies of the Gazette being burned...(newspapers being burned, not books )

Sorry for going on a bit, but dont you just LOVE CSCP's humiliation

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That's how Nazi Germany started. They'll be burning books next. (Brian Noble, Wigan coach - updated 20/4/06!!).

I think they're just trying to be smart and say 'let's make sure there are no deaths in 2007', though they have made a dog's breakfast of getting the meaning across.

They've obviously given up trying to maintain the lie that their cameras actually are helping reduce accidents already, so are forced to resort to 'let's hope they start working this year'.

The line which reads "These are not just statistics but mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, brothers, sisters and friends" just does not sit right with a blank graph - but has been included with all previous graphs throughout the year.
Whatever the scenario re. the blank graph, they are failing to make any impact on fatals, and claiming undeserved credit for a reduction in serious injuries.

When pressed on this in the past, they claimed that they could not be responsible for deaths away from camera sites, yet here they are taking CREDIT for serious injuries - some of which did not take place at camera sites!

The fish STINKS, all the way from the head to the tail, no matter which way they try to cut it!

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

The bottom line is, CSCP will come up with any propeganda that will make their non-jobs look successful.

It is a well-known fact (to quote a phrase from the Lanca$hire Scam website ) that more people died at CSCP monitored sites in the 3 years since CSCP started operating than in the previous 3 years. (Source = CSCP replies to FOI requests by Kendalian - last one in breach of FOI timescales)

60 (sixty) people died on Cumbria's roads in 2006. That is more than any other year since CSCP started in business and yet they are claiming to be successful and on course to meet their 2010 "target". Callaghan should visit the mothers and fathers, sons and daughters etc and tell them face to face CSCP is achieving its targets.

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That's how Nazi Germany started. They'll be burning books next. (Brian Noble, Wigan coach - updated 20/4/06!!).

Is anyone going to send a summary of this nonsense to the media? Seems like it could produce some heat for the old submariner!

This is a simple cock-up. I think we are reading too much into it.

The tone of the advert, though, points to a characteristic of CSCP using meaningless correlations in a meaningless way as if it points to some magical causation factor that Kevin or Steve has interpolated, and how they are trying to make good old JJ's time there worthwhile.

I agree it's incompetence, but it would be nice to hear 'em squeal.

CSCP website updated today with the December 2006 figures.

Confirmed 61 fatals, even worse than we thought previously. But because SI's are down to 282, KSI's are well down on last year - hence CSCP claim "sucess". Words, for once, fail me

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That's how Nazi Germany started. They'll be burning books next. (Brian Noble, Wigan coach - updated 20/4/06!!).