Speed cameras are pretty topical at the moment but, no, this is not a piece about Chris Huhne. Right-wing “astroturf” pressure group, the Tax Payers Alliance, in a populist swipe at speed cameras, have published “research” with an implication they seem to have overlooked. The “research” predicts that, without speed cameras, road deaths would have been down to zero by 2013, and still falling! Negative road deaths? Resurrection by another name.
The quality of their “research” is exposed in this excellent video from the good people at the Other Tax Payers Alliance, the tax payers who support public services, which shows just how they did it: take a graph showing road deaths, starting at the date they started falling, draw a vertical red line when speed cameras were introduced, then draw a blue straight line extending the downward trend of road deaths that resulted from a period of active road safety policy. Then ring your Tory friends and the media. Job done.
(Hat tip: Political Scrapbook)
