How do things look in North Wales?

[Artisan]

Question to Richard Brunstrom: "What do you like most about your role?" Answer: "The ability to make a difference personally and the power, of course"

Let's take a look at the difference he's made then. Here's some figures from Richard Brunstrom's area, North Wales Police. Taken from their web site (as is the quote above).

Fatal and serious collisions:

2002/3 279
2003/4 291


Fatalities

2002/3 48
2003/4 49


Of course, the worsening fatality figures are no doubt explained by the 'huge problem with born again motor cyclists' who race around North Wales at the weekend*. OK, well let's take a look at the figures:


Motor Cyclist fatalities:

2002/3 15
2003/4 13


Oops!


*Richard Brunstrom, Radio 4 Today programme, 26 June

[cuneus]

HMM when I posted this was the reply from SCP

"The number of road fatalities increased by 11% last year in North Wales. Fatalities rose from 44 to 49 in 2003."

NOTE: An Arrive Alive spokeswoman said "These figures are for all of North Wales NOT for Arrive Alive targeted routes. In 2003 Arrive Alive saw a DECREASE in the number of deaths and injuries on roads targeted by the campaign, the equivalent to 11 less fatalities and 49 less serious injuries. The figures above are correct for all of North Wales, but the increase was due to the huge increase in motorcycle fatalities which went from 7 in 2002 to 18 in 2003."

[Artisan]

In evaluating Brunstroms performance I was looking at his own figures for his whole area, not just the bits he'd like us to select to show us how well(?) he is doing. My figures are straight from the horses mouth, so to speak.

<a href="http://www.north-wales.police.uk/foi/site/performance.asp"><a href="http://www.north-wales.police.uk/foi/site/performance.asp">www.north-wales.police.uk/foi/site/performance.asp</a></a>

Unfortunately they deal with years from April through to March so there may be slight discrepancies with figures for calendar years.

The specific document that I used is at www.north-wales.police.uk/foi/absolutenm/articlefiles/233-Road%20Traffic%20Collisions%20-%20Force.pdf If anything, this is a more up to date set of data than that based on calendar years.

There's a simple explanation: SPIN


>> Edited by Artisan on Sunday 27th June 16:21

[streaky]

cuneus said:

NOTE: An Arrive Alive spokeswoman said "In 2003 Arrive Alive saw a DECREASE in the number of deaths and injuries on roads targeted by the campaign, the equivalent to 11 less fatalities and 49 less serious injuries."

Good to hear that 49 injuries were less serious, but I fail to understand how 11 people can be less dead!

Do they mean "fewer"?

Streaky

[Mr2Mike]

Arrive Alive spokeswoman said:

the increase was due to the huge increase in motorcycle fatalities which went from 7 in 2002 to 18 in 2003."

Are we therefore to conclude that cameras don't help save motorcyclists lives? That's very discriminatory, I think a letter of complaint should be drafted

[Artisan]

Just visited the Arrive Alive web site to see what they are up to. Clicked on News and the last article is an opinion article from the Guardian nearly 6 months old.

It's very disappointing, I thought that they would not be able to wait to tell us about their successes

I've sent an e-mail suggesting that they post the Sunday Times editorial from 27 June to bring their site up to date.