Tuesday 3 June 2014

The Police are Looking for Scapegoats

When a holiday road toll is low, the police always praise themselves, most recently their “no tolerance” speed rule.

When the toll is not low, they blame everyone else.

And of statistical anomalies, which always happen with a small sample size, they are always completely unaware.

Put that together, and after a holiday weekend of higher road tolls despite Chief Officer NumbBum sitting immobile in his car all weekend recording drivers’ speeds, you get the police blaming … tourists.

Over the Queen's Birthday weekend, four of the five people killed on the roads apparently died as a result of driving errors by overseas visitors. That has reignited calls for compulsory tests for tourists before they are allowed to drive in New Zealand.

The reporter has failed to note that three of the five died in one tragedy, in Canterbury. Which changes the story a little. Well, a lot.

And, calls from whom? Well, calls from the Transport Agency, the Police, ACC, local government leaders and the Ministry of Transport. All of whom have been heavily selling their flawed cut-speed-cut-the-road-toll message, and now want to use a tragic statistical anomaly from one weekend to set policy for years to come.

Pillocks.

5 comments:

Simon said...

Road toll had been trending down for a long time due to capitalists responding to consumer demand to make cars safer.

Why if the State can make roads safer did they wait so long before getting their program underway? Why start in 2007 or 2008 and not 1990? Will anyone in the State be held accountable for this deadly incompetence.

Anonymous said...

I personally blame the 5km tolerance. When they first introduced it and got a good result (from a sample size of one holiday) they were happy to keep it. Now that we have had several horror weekends when the 5km tolerance has been in place, they have more than enough data to conclude there is in fact causing the high road toll. I think they need to experiment with a 20km tolerance to get a better data set. And just police bad driving. FreeMack

Anonymous said...

I agree Simon. Like the dual carriage way between Auckland and Hamilton, due for completion by 1968. FreeMack

Anonymous said...

Let's see. Fatalities and serious injuries (e.g. paraplegia) due to misues of parliamentary cars = 8
Due to "boy racers" = 2 fatalities

Taken from the LTA's press releases and also statements made to the District and High Courts of NZ.

How about a no tolerance rule on parliamentary cars? How about none at all? That would have reduced the toll by 8 already.


Amit

Chaz said...

"Let's see. Fatalities and serious injuries (e.g. paraplegia) due to misues of parliamentary cars = 8
Due to "boy racers" = 2 fatalities"

What are your definitions and sources, and what time period is this over? I'm starting to see why you're an anti-vaccination conspiracy theorist; it's because you're a bit dim.