Looking at the road death toll during Dec and all the horrific stories and images seen on the news set me to thinking.
According to the Arrive Alive website the fatal car crash figures I could find are as follows:
Nov 2011 - 852
Dec 2011 - 1080
Jan 2012 - 753
Feb 2012 - 771
Mar 2012 - 835
I’m no mathematician or statistician, but surely the increase in Dec and Easter traffic volumes are far more than the 20% increase in crashes?
It seems to me as if the Dec fatal accident to traffic volume ratio is in fact lower than the rest of the year.
I stand to be corrected as I could find no stats regarding this, but if I am right it can only be subscribed to two things I can think of.
1) More road safety campaigns in the media during this time
2) More proactive and visible policing during this time
At no other time during the year do we see so many traffic police vehicles and officers on our roads, with an obvious calming effect on road users and consequently less fatal crashes.
If they would spend less time during the rest of the year hiding and trapping and more time on the road proactively managing traffic would we not see a reduced fatal accident rate and saved lives during the whole year and not only in Dec?
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