The Vancouver Sun published a somewhat edited letter from SENSE (Sept 24, 2010) in response to columns by Pete McMartin and Craig McInnes (Sept 21, 2010). Below is the original SENSE letter:

The Editor,

Kudos to Pete McMartin for digging into the research on red light cameras: these systems make money for governments and the suppliers, but do not deliver the promised safety benefits as sold to the public.

Three pages later Craig McInnis (“Curious path to roadside justice”), on the other hand, opines that since British Columbians have silently accepted the dumping of due process with the new impoundment laws that allow police officers to charge, convict and confiscate, we may as well go all the way and bring back photo radar.

While McInnis makes a good point in that the dumping of photo radar was a political decision, it was done after photo radar proved to be not only a costly failure ($130 million)… but also disliked immensely by the people who vote. He is right when he says that most of us are hypocrites when it comes to speed as we are quite happy to drive at safe and reasonable speeds over often under posted speed limits.

McInnis points out that fatalities were up in 2002 (photo radar was removed in June 2001), but if speed makes crashes worse: why did injury crashes drop over the same period? Answer: speed wasn´t the underlying issue.

ICBC published a study purporting to show that photo radar reduced fatalities – however, the researchers based their work solely on stats that are now acknowledged in ICBC publications to be erroneous. Two other sources of motor vehicle fatalities in BC (coroner´s, ICBC death benefit claims) showed no reduction in fatalities during the same time.

If one separates out too-fast-for-conditions crashes (below the limit) and crashes involving criminal impairment – as some jurisdictions do – speeding fatalities that are addressed by ticketing run around 3-6%, not the alarming 35-40% cited by those with agendas.

Cherry picking stats make for superficial press releases and easy editorials. To gain true insight, one must look deeper at national trends, vehicle-kilometers-travelled, the economy (better economy equals more cars and more occupants), and much more.

Digesting complex systems into simplistic sound bites like “speed kills” makes it seem so intuitive that handing out more tickets will solve the problems – but they won´t.

we need on site onsite road inspections by police on a regular basis to control, drunk drivers and doped drivers, and unsafe vehicles, improper use of fog lamps, the police are hired to serve and protect, people who respect the laws have nothing to worry about, there are too may illegal guns being transported to and from crime area’s Many thanks to the police who are now trying to take people off the road who will not adhere to the laws of the land, Driving road and weather conditions are really a drivers prime responsibility and contribute to many accident in the B.C., However there is a decline in the application of sand required on the black ice conditions because sand costs money, and I.C.B.C. Just pay the repair bills and never question why contractors do not practice accident prevention But haul the profit’s to the Local bank’s Retired Highways worker

we have a retired. R.C.M.P.friend who is trying to get a program going so we can better report unsafe drivers ,we like the looks of the suggestion, and wonder why I.C.B.C won’t
buy into the idea the program that would operate as follows. The Supt Of Motor Vehicles would have a Video display on his desk with a live direct link to the dangerous driver’s program , AS we drive on the road system we would record the licence # and location with K.M. and time and date and a description of the infraction and the name of our witness.all the information would be then entered into the nearest Terminal with the name,s and address and contact information from the person making the complaint. all these complaint,s would appear on the Screen on the Desk of the Supt. of Motor vehicles, at which time the Supt. would phone the driver and advise of the total report’s of dangerous driving and ask for their cooperation in stopping the unsafe action’s and if there was no commitment for improvement the Man at the top could invite the driver to court to face the Charges. This tool would allow you and I to report dangerous drivers and be able to improve public safety through Public participation in the operation of safe roads, Currently we have little clout , But remember the guy that give’s us the finger passe’s this finger onto many other driver’s and if they realized there were people who want better driver respect on the road’s system.and were prepared to take court action. so that bad driver’s would have their performance recorded at the M.V supt level and a possibility of losing their drivers licence and or Vehicle they would smarten up or should smarten up