My response to another Wandall Scamera letter!

Ole Wandall is trying to justify a bad law named for a good man again.

As many those of you who follow this blog daily, I make no secret of posting the truth against the scamera side.  I DON'T HIDE WHO I AM unlike former ATS VP BILL KROSKE DID.  http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20110525/BLOG48/705259809   (And I personally don't think he is the only one doing astro turf post from the scamera side either).

I decided to leave a comment.

(At time of this posting, I was awaiting the moderators approval). (I have attached a pdf).

Wonder how long before the the trauma centers get the short end of the stick.

RLC are NOT about safety, they are NOT about helping others (unless you count RLC vendors being helped to citizens wallets for increasingly technical fouls).

It will only be a matter of time before the funding will be reallocated somewhere else. Witness this example out of Texas: http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/36/3691.asp

Quote: "He said, you know, it's obviously a revenue source. Local communities try to sell it as public safety, cutting down on red light running. He and I and I think most people would realize it's really a revenue source. John Carona in Austin said, I'm not going to eliminate but let the state have half of that revenue dedicated to trauma
care which is badly underfunded."  Though the money was promised to trauma care centers, over $40 million of this money has remained in the state's general fund and not been distributed to the trauma centers.

"The budget writers in an effort to find resources and money to balance the budget never sent that," Whitmire explained. "It's wrong. It's wrong."
(end quote)

SO IMAGINE THAT one state has already BROKE it's promise on trauma center funding. How soon before Florida will. Anyone remember the promises on Lotto School funding???? http://voices.yahoo.com/lottery-funds-education-misused-1963684.html?cat=9

IN fact the police over there are already MISUING THE FUNDS!
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/37/3783.asp Quote: "City documents show the city spent $71,994 from the red light camera program for an air-conditioned "tactical observation platform" used for surveillance in a WalMart parking lot. Another $55,000 went for a fingerprint station; $52,275 went for a crime scene imager; $28,234 on a K-9 unit; $20,000 for video and audio enhancement software; $8400 for body armor; $7800 for sniper rifle scopes; $5342 for cell phone forensic software; $5000 for training-room computers; $3750 for tactical entry rifles; and $3250 for a GPS tracker. Schirmbeck points out that the city knew the purchases were shady because a list of items funded by the red light camera program published on the city's website omits all of the questionable items."

The WANDALL SCAMERA ACT IS NOT ABOUT SAFETY. IT HAS BEEN AND ALWAYS WILL BE ABOUT MONEY! (Despite naming it after a good man, IT DOESN"T CHANGE THE FACT THAT THE RLC LAW IS A FRAUDULENT LAW)

RLC DO NOT PULL OVER Dangersous drivers, but send bills weeks later.
Heck if you even look at some of these RLV crashes it is OBVIOUS A RLC WILL NEVER STOP THE CRASH! http://www.banthecams.org/Red-Light-Camera-News/why-the-vast-majority-of-rlv-crashes-will-not-be-prevented-by-rlc.html

EVEN THE RLC VENDORS OWN VIDEOS PROVE RLC DO NOT stop dangerous RLR crashes. look here:  http://www.banthecams.org/Did-You-Know/videos-in-article-on-rlc-ban-bill-prove-the-rlc-are-a-failure.html also see: - http://www.banthecams.org/Red-Light-Camera-News/videos-that-show-rlc-will-not-work-they-didnt-stop-these-crashes-where-they-were-installed.html

I find it interesting that Wandalls primary justification in this letter is "funding for trauma" centers.

The "safety" argument is just a "talking" point. OR is it a ruse.

Witness here the former representative that WORKS FOR A KNOWN RLC FRONT GROUP FROM ATS:  http://www.thenewspaper.com/rlc/docs/2011/ncsrmo.pdf
(HERE IS THE DOCUMENT SHOWING REAGANS NAME ON NCSR)!
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/35/3585.asp Quote: "Documents incorporating NCSR Inc as a nonprofit entity in the state of Missouri confirm that NCSR is anything but the independent campaign of "victims, parents, medical professionals and first responders" as the group's publicity material suggests. NCSR's board of directors instead consists of three individuals: James D. Tuton, ATS president; George J. Hittner, ATS General Counsel; and Charles Territo, ATS spokesman." (see pdf above to see Reagans name on it too).

(Is Wandall more a Lobbyist for the scamera side now than just a citizen (Why the title at "STOP"??) ARE the vendors Funding this little operation too just like other ASTRO front groups??? Here is Redflex front group: -
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/37/3744.asp Quote: "Texas Traffic Safety Coalition incorporation papers filed with the Texas secretary of state named three directors: David Goldenberg, Gregory Goldner and David Smolensky. It is not a grassroots group. In fact, all three of those individuals are officers of Resolute Consulting, a public relations firm retained by Redflex. This arrangement allows Redflex to disguise its involvement in the suit.")

www.banthecams.org

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.

FAKE AMBER BILLS  (bills that PRETEND to "lengthen" ambers, when they DON'T)

FLORIDA AMBER TIME Part of SB 590 BILL, NOW a FAKE AMBER BILL. 

Provisions that REQUIRE LONGER AMBERS (not just restate FED LAW) REMOVED!

School Bus cameras is it for the “kids” or is it a bait and switch??????

(also see:  http://alerts.motorists.org/nma-e-newsletter-155-the-numbers-tell-the-sto )

It came to Ban the Cams attention that Florida Legislature is considering school bus scameras.  http://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2012/0250 and http://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2012/269 (House Version).  (Any bets the scamera vendors “helped” write this bill??)

Is NHTSA 48% claim counting NON traffic light accidents in their numbers????

I recently came across this claim in a Miami article on All Red Clearance Intervals out of Miami. 

http://miami.cbslocal.com/2012/02/06/legislation-seeks-to-make-miami-dade-county-intersections-safer/  

Did Univeristy student in Columbus RLC "violation" times review video or just used "time into red"????

Recently a report came out of Columbus on RLC.  A Univeristy student used data "provided" by Redflex and the city that "40% of those caught by cameras missed by at least three seconds." http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/01/15/red-light-offenses-arent-all-close.html

Quote:  He studied six years of records kept by the Department of Public Safety and Redflex Traffic Systems, the Arizona company that operates Columbus cameras.
“In my opinion, they’re blatantly running a red light,” Brunner said.

Another 12 months, a second poll calming public support for RLC.  Sample size 508 out of a region with over 2 million in it.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/localgovernment/as-red-light-cameras-sprout-across-tampa-bay-residents-offer-strong-support/1208245

Quote:  "A Tampa Bay Times/Bay News 9 poll found 62 percent of residents favor the cameras. A third oppose them, while 4 percent aren't sure."

The “Angle” Scam:  How Cities (and maybe vendors) use Angle Crashes instead of RLR crashes to manipulate the TRUTH!

How many of you heard this claim from the Scamera Side on RLC:  “angle crashes have gone down”????

My Response to Tuton PROPAGANDA PIECE.

As some of you at Ban the Cams know, I routinely post comments on RLC articles EXPOSING the SCAMERA VENDORS LIES!

I tried to leave the post below on the Sun Sentinel site, but they are not allowing comments.

Photo Enforcement – the “Safety” SHELL GAME!

The sales pitch of many scamera vendors and towns is that they want photo enforcement for “safety”. 

They go out and use some terrible accident (or incident) to claim that this is the “reason” they “need” photo enforcement.   The problem with that SALES PITCH is that it is a lie.