A little support

IN BETWEEN monitoring council’s fiscal follies I am a student of the road toll and heartily endorse Gary King (15 October) about road education programs. Education and emergency training is why an 18-year-old can safely pilot high performance aircraft with passengers or a 22-year-old survive and win Bathurst.
But please let us not have your reporter (8 October) and Gary join Victoria Police and their often misused statistics by citing a “200 per cent increase in the road toll” locally. Certainly Cardinia Shire increased from two to six fatalities up to August but the state road toll same period was down on 2013. Small number statistics are misleading; at around one fatal per 200 million kilometres travelled, the road toll is random in where and when it occurs.
Assistant Commissioner Robert Hill uses statistics for support rather than illumination on your page 24, 8 October edition to brainwash the public against the freeway to Geelong increasing to 110 km/h – “German autobahn deaths increased by eight per cent during 2013 compared to 2012”.
Very true, but he didn’t mention autobahns carried about a third of traffic yet only represented about an eighth of traffic deaths. Or that Germany’s rural fatalities had a higher per accident death rate. Once we push past the statistical hype the reason is obvious that on autobahns and our freeways everyone is going in the same direction.
Another unsurprising omission of statistics by Robert – he quotes the autobahn toll up by eight per cent as a negative – yet we are currently in the largest traffic blitz ever run by Victoria Police in a state with a maximum of 110 km/h and our own road toll is up compared to last year by … 10 per cent. That returns us to Gary’s thrust – education and training is the key to the majority surviving, leaving enforcement to stop belabouring the majority and get on with sorting out those few with the attitude that they can do as they please on our roads.
Brian Hannan,
Emerald.