Governors Highway "Safety" Association pushing "speeding" report to "push" for "photo enforcement”.  (Same Group "honored" a scamera front group earlier).

The GHSA just came out with a "report" playing the ole speed card of "1/3" accidents are "speed related".  http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-03-08/little-progress-on-speeding-enforcement/53404826/1 

(GHSA is using this "report" to  push for more photo enforcement!)

The NMA had this to say on the GHSA report:

The National Motorists Association (www.motorists.org) , a Waunakee, Wis.-based group that was initially formed to seek repeal of the 55-mph national speed limit, sees it differently.

"The bottom line is that the roads have never been safer," says NMA communications director John Bowman. "Traffic fatality rates have been steadily dropping since 1995. That, incidentally, was the year they repealed the national speed limit. They've been steadily decreasing, and that's with higher speed."

Bowman says that "rather than a sole focus on increased enforcement," NMA favors a national effort to set speed limits based on sound traffic engineering principles and more public education on safe driving practices, especially lane courtesy, in which slower traffic keeps right.

It is an old game the GHSA is playing using the "1/3" number, but the problem is "speed related" also counts accidents WHERE SPEEDING DID NOT OCCUR.  It also can count accidents where a driver "exceeded" the speed limit, but that wasn't the cause of the accident at all. 

The Association of British Drivers in the UK went out and mention the problems with the 1/3 claim there:  http://www.abd.org.uk/one_third.htm

The Transport Research Laboratory was commissioned to investigate a new type of form for police officers to report on road traffic accidents they attend. This form was designed to produce more accurate data on causal factors.

The results of this investigation, published in report TRL323, showed that excess speed was a factor (but not necessarily the only factor) in 7.3% of accidents.

Of course, this small problem did not divert the DLTR, who were by this time politically welded to the great 'one third' lie.

They got around their little problem by defining all sorts of other accident causes as "speed related" until they managed to get them to add up to a third.

 Also Greg Mauz has done two reports on the subject:

1.  Speeding Crash Statistics:  http://www.bhspi.org/mauz/Speed%20Crash%20Statistics%20by%20Greg%20Mauz.pdf

Traffic crash statistics, especially for speeding, can already mislead the average citizen.  U.S. and most state statistics allow up to 3 factors per crash as "contributing circumstances." For example: Joe Citizen, with a .18 blood alcohol content (BAC), runs a red-light at 10 MPH over the speed limit, colliding with another vehicle and killing the driver.  Without question, the primary cause of the wreck is drunk driving. RLR becomes the second factor. Violating the speed limit played an inconsequential role in the crash, but becomes logged into the statistics anyway. Further analysis of "speeding" stats reveal that, oftentimes, the majority are actually weather-caused accidents. Many of these crashes occur well below the posted speed limit. However, they qualify as "speeding" under "speed too fast for conditions." The question is: what percentage of all and fatal crashes can honestly cite true speeding as the primary cause?

 2.  http://www.bhspi.org/mauz/Speed%20Related%20Fatalities%20Grossly%20Inflated%20by%20NHTSA%202.11.2010.pdf

In fact this gap of reality by the pushers of the 1/3 “speed related” claim can be seen in some States Crash Facts.  You see some states actually break out how many accidents were CAUSED by exceeding the speed limit.

Take Ohio for example: 

Ohio for 2008.  http://www.publicsafety.ohio.gov/links/HSY7606-2008.pdf   Table 2.08 on page 18 of the Adobe

Exceeded Speed Limit: 10 Fatal,  0.9 % of Fatal     

Unsafe Speed:  173   Fatal,  15.7 %  of Fatal        (notice this is DOES NOT MEAN ABOVE THE SPEED LIMIT.  OHIO already broke that out ABOVE!)

Ohio for 2009.  http://www.publicsafety.ohio.gov/links/2009CrashFacts.pdf    Table 2.08 on page 17 of the Adobe

Exceeded Speed Limit: 11 Fatal, 1.2 % of Fatal

Unsafe Speed: 143 Fatal, 15.1 % of Fatal 

Ohio for 2010  is similar:  http://www.publicsafety.ohio.gov/links/2010CrashFacts.pdf  on page 17 of the Adobe.

Exceeded Speed Limit: 12 Fatal, 1.2 % of Fatal

 Unsafe Speed: 144 Fatal, 14.6 % of Fatal

 Did you notice that the % killed WASN’T  1/3????   IT WAS CLOSURE TO 1%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The strange part is this is not the first time groups have played game with statistics to push an agenda.

NHTSA did something similar by claiming that intersection accidents account for 48%. The problem, THEY WERE COUNTING NON TRAFFIC LIGHT INTERSECTION in their numbers.  Nationally RLV crashes are under a 1,000 per year.  So OBVIOUSLY RLV CRAHSES are NOT 48%!  http://www.banthecams.org/Blogs/is-nhtsa-48-claim-counting-non-traffic-light-accidents-in-their-numbers.html

There might be some reason to be suspicious of the GHSA sincerity on “safety”.  You see this same group  gave an "award" to a KNOWN Redflex FRONT GROUP, the Traffic "Safety" Coalition.  (Redflex Mafia http://camerafraud.wordpress.com/2010/05/04/the-redflex-mafia/) :  http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/36/3605.asp

State highway officials are using their public offices to lend credibility to a public relations front group created by a foreign red light camera company. On September 27, the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) held its annual meeting in Cincinnati, Ohio where it celebrated the "special achievement" of the Traffic Safety Coalition. This group, which is run by a public relations firm retained by the Australian photo enforcement firm Redflex Traffic Systems, accepted the Peter K. O'Rourke Special Achievement Award.

 

GHSA is a non-profit organization that "receives a substantial part of its support from a governmental unit or from the general public," according to its tax returns. Its primary members are state transportation officials who use GHSA to lobby on behalf of programs that increase the issuance of traffic tickets.

The same "Traffic Safety Coalition" SUED TO STOP A REFERENDUM IN TX by the citizens to vote on BANNING RLC!  http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/34/3445.asp