Tuesday 26 October 2010

ROAD TOLL - FAULTY LOGIC?


Not PC has a good blog on what the causal factors of this weekends holiday road toll were.

However, blonde as we maybe ( bleaching a little lighter every day in the Wairarapa sun) we think that there is some seriously faulty maths at play here.

Hasn't our population increased? Aren't there more cars on the road? So in effect isn't there a net decrease in the road toll per head of population?

We freely admit to being numerically dyslexic so maybe we are missing something.

So Stats meisters out there - whats the answer - are we getting better at killing ourselves on the road or are we getting better at practicing road safety?

2 comments:

Andrew D said...

You're not wrong! Even holding the absolute road toll steady with a growing population is some kind of a win.

Off memory the worst road tolls per capita were in the late sixties and early seventies, and they were absolutely astronomical by today's standards. Over the long haul since then we have been very successful at improving road safety.

At some point it may become difficult to improve things further and then we will have to get used to the road toll increasing every year with the population.

FAIRFACTS MEDIA said...

Cars are getting safer.
Road are improving and getting safer.
If you are in a crash, you can call an ambulance on your mobile, ensuring quicker care.
With better medical care overall, the long run trend is bound to be down.
And in the larger cities, such as in Auckland, it is getting harder and harder to drive fast enough to kill anyone.
I am sure this is all helping reduce the roadtoll better than any government initiative.