BRAKE Policies
Discussion
As a result of all the BRAKE related threads, I spent some time looking through the BRAKE website today.
After all the usual bumf, I found a couple of very interesting documents. Firstly, this one that outlines there overall policy:
www.brake.org.uk/UploadedFiles/2002Feb21-10-55-27AM.doc
Imagine my shock when I read through it to find a lucid and well written introduction by Mary Williams herself. Even more surprisingly, I found that the vast majority of the policy points raised coincide with those that have been written about on PH and other pro motoring fora. My only real reservation having read the entire document was the way I felt it "cheapened" the Dunblane and Lockerbie disasters by stating that the relatives of people killed on the roads go through the same trauma and should be afforded the same support. A valid point perhaps, but the method of putting that point appeared slightly dismissive of these other horrendous events.
A second document was not quite as enlightening. The BRAKE information sheet on speed (to be found here: www.brake.org.uk/UploadedFiles/2002Jul11-3-06-37PM.doc) trots out all of the usual statistics. In fact at one point it states that the Government should issue press releases to "refute misquoted research", despite the repeated use of the 1/3 lie and claims of speed cameras reducing casualties by "up to 50%" throughout the very same document.
I was still further disheartened when reaching the section of the document entitled "What happens when people drive too fast?” In this section, very sketchy details are given of 6 tragic occurrences of death on the roads. Not enough information is provided to draw any conclusions about the circumstances of any of these incidents, but from what is said speed alone was not the only reason for these deaths.
My point for posting this is that if we take speeding as just one point out of many that BRAKE campaigns about, then there would only be a very small percentage of their policies and ideals that I, and I believe many other PHers, would disagree with. However, when we look at the percentage of BRAKE's effort expended on the "Speed Kills" issue, it appears greatly disproportionate in comparison to all the other good ideas they possess.
Without BRAKE's fanatical obsession with this side of the road safety debate, they would have many, many more supporters from this site alone.
In the end, the majority of people will walk away from the events of this week with nothing but a bad taste in our mouths and a disliking for Ms Williams, whilst the mud-slinging press releases will be consigned to forgotten history. Without the venomous conflict between the two "sides" of the debate, we may have been able to get the real road safety issues into the public arena, but sadly this opportunity has been lost.
My plea is for BRAKE to stop regarding us as "the enemy" and if at all possible for them to see that we are all fighting for the same end result - less deaths on our roads. Let's not let all our time and resources be spent fighting each other.
After all the usual bumf, I found a couple of very interesting documents. Firstly, this one that outlines there overall policy:
www.brake.org.uk/UploadedFiles/2002Feb21-10-55-27AM.doc
Imagine my shock when I read through it to find a lucid and well written introduction by Mary Williams herself. Even more surprisingly, I found that the vast majority of the policy points raised coincide with those that have been written about on PH and other pro motoring fora. My only real reservation having read the entire document was the way I felt it "cheapened" the Dunblane and Lockerbie disasters by stating that the relatives of people killed on the roads go through the same trauma and should be afforded the same support. A valid point perhaps, but the method of putting that point appeared slightly dismissive of these other horrendous events.
A second document was not quite as enlightening. The BRAKE information sheet on speed (to be found here: www.brake.org.uk/UploadedFiles/2002Jul11-3-06-37PM.doc) trots out all of the usual statistics. In fact at one point it states that the Government should issue press releases to "refute misquoted research", despite the repeated use of the 1/3 lie and claims of speed cameras reducing casualties by "up to 50%" throughout the very same document.
I was still further disheartened when reaching the section of the document entitled "What happens when people drive too fast?” In this section, very sketchy details are given of 6 tragic occurrences of death on the roads. Not enough information is provided to draw any conclusions about the circumstances of any of these incidents, but from what is said speed alone was not the only reason for these deaths.
My point for posting this is that if we take speeding as just one point out of many that BRAKE campaigns about, then there would only be a very small percentage of their policies and ideals that I, and I believe many other PHers, would disagree with. However, when we look at the percentage of BRAKE's effort expended on the "Speed Kills" issue, it appears greatly disproportionate in comparison to all the other good ideas they possess.
Without BRAKE's fanatical obsession with this side of the road safety debate, they would have many, many more supporters from this site alone.
In the end, the majority of people will walk away from the events of this week with nothing but a bad taste in our mouths and a disliking for Ms Williams, whilst the mud-slinging press releases will be consigned to forgotten history. Without the venomous conflict between the two "sides" of the debate, we may have been able to get the real road safety issues into the public arena, but sadly this opportunity has been lost.
My plea is for BRAKE to stop regarding us as "the enemy" and if at all possible for them to see that we are all fighting for the same end result - less deaths on our roads. Let's not let all our time and resources be spent fighting each other.
Well said that man. 
As you so rightly point out, it is their unnecessary and inaccurate fixation with speed and the speed kills untruth that makes people disregard something/anything good that this group may be contributing to road safety, and I don’t blame them. If brake truly are about road safety, surely a more diverse, grounded, accurate and well researched policy would be stated, and not just that, but more importantly carried out..??
>> Edited by llamekcuf on Friday 19th December 18:39
As you so rightly point out, it is their unnecessary and inaccurate fixation with speed and the speed kills untruth that makes people disregard something/anything good that this group may be contributing to road safety, and I don’t blame them. If brake truly are about road safety, surely a more diverse, grounded, accurate and well researched policy would be stated, and not just that, but more importantly carried out..??
>> Edited by llamekcuf on Friday 19th December 18:39
Yep, have in the past agreed with Brakes stances on education, company car drivers and drink driving to name just three examples. However, what disgusts me about the whole fiasco is that they have LIED to the press for their own personal and professional (ok, so its a charity) gain. This alone is enough for me to dismiss them as "yet another anti-speeding" group.
Had they not taken such extraordinary steps to issue libelous press releases, push the story on the press and keep up the lie in TV interviews then I wouldnt be pi55ed off by this. But they have completely decimated their credibility by this one single act......
Why did they have to lie and potentially slander to do this? They DID have lots of good comments and policies - but taking these actions means they are no better than any of the other lentil-sucking-guardian-reading-anti-car morons out there....
Sorry, but they crossed the line and without an official apology they will NEVER get my respect back.....
Had they not taken such extraordinary steps to issue libelous press releases, push the story on the press and keep up the lie in TV interviews then I wouldnt be pi55ed off by this. But they have completely decimated their credibility by this one single act......
Why did they have to lie and potentially slander to do this? They DID have lots of good comments and policies - but taking these actions means they are no better than any of the other lentil-sucking-guardian-reading-anti-car morons out there....
Sorry, but they crossed the line and without an official apology they will NEVER get my respect back.....
I don't believe road casualties will fall below current levels.
Every passing vehicle is a potential disaster that can be triggered by a momentary error.
Now, that's a huge risk, every moment of every day.
And how do we manage it?
Bloody well, I suggest. More people die in domestic accidents than on the roads.
We ought to be celebrating our success, not tinkering with theories that might do some good, but might equally make things worse.
The decades of improving trends have stopped. We need to stop tinkering and get back to the proven safeguards that were dumped by a government brainwashed by pseudo experts with an agenda totally divorced from road safety.
Eh, Mary? (and your buddies at Transport Three Years Past Sell By Date).
Every passing vehicle is a potential disaster that can be triggered by a momentary error.
Now, that's a huge risk, every moment of every day.
And how do we manage it?
Bloody well, I suggest. More people die in domestic accidents than on the roads.
We ought to be celebrating our success, not tinkering with theories that might do some good, but might equally make things worse.
The decades of improving trends have stopped. We need to stop tinkering and get back to the proven safeguards that were dumped by a government brainwashed by pseudo experts with an agenda totally divorced from road safety.
Eh, Mary? (and your buddies at Transport Three Years Past Sell By Date).
mybrainhurts said:
...
More people die in domestic accidents than on the roads.
...
Those accidents must be caused by people speeding! Even Micro$oft warns against running with scissors.
So, I have the answer ... speed cameras in every home!
Think of the revenue Mr Brown!
Now, is there time to get my knighthood in the New Year's Honours?
Streaky
>> Edited by nubbin on Saturday 20th December 09:09
streaky said:
...More people die in domestic accidents than on the roads....
So, I have the answer ... speed cameras in every home!
Think of the revenue Mr Brown!
Now, is there time to get my knighthood in the New Year's Honours?
Streaky
>> Edited by nubbin on Saturday 20th December 09:09
More people die in hospitals than on the roads, from things they didn't have when they went in. So we need cameras in hospitals too. A £60 fine every time a nurse doesn't wash her hands, or a cleaner doesn't clean under the bed? If you obey the regulations then you've nothing to fear of course....
Peter Ward said:
...More people die in domestic accidents than on the roads....
Those accidents must be caused by people speeding! Even Micro$oft warns against running with scissors.
So, I have the answer ... speed cameras in every home!
Think of the revenue Mr Brown!
Now, is there time to get my knighthood in the New Year's Honours?
Streaky
>> Edited by nubbin on Saturday 20th December 09:09
More people die in hospitals than on the roads, from things they didn't have when they went in. So we need cameras in hospitals too. A £60 fine every time a nurse doesn't wash her hands, or a cleaner doesn't clean under the bed? If you obey the regulations then you've nothing to fear of course....
And see how many folks are really killed by third party accidents in the NHS. Over 50,000 per year, would you believe???
www.guide-information.org.uk/guide/dr_legal.htm
BRAKE are the same as the Dunblane Snowdrop Campaign. They're zealots. Absolutely *nothing* anyone says will sway them one iota from their absolute conviction that they're right. They will accept no fact, no statistic, no argument that shows them even remotely to be anything other than absolutely correct. Arguing with them is a waste of time. And if you do, especially in public, then you're a baby-killer.
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