Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Shills for Camera Industry
In its 30-page report issued last week about the Montgomery County, Maryland, speed camera program, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) does its best to revive a reeling camera industry. The use of red-light cameras has been declining for a couple of years now in no small part due to corrupt actions by of one of the major camera vendors in the U.S., Redflex and to the unethical use of short yellow lights to drive up violation rates.
Auto insurance companies like red-light camera because they issue lots of tickets that can be used to justify shifting their customers from the preferred company to the high risk company, with higher rates, of course. Cities and counties like them they are a revenue bonanza. Insurance customers also become trapped at that point because other insurers either won’t accept them after they’ve been canceled by another company or will do so only at the same higher rate, if not an even higher rate. Crony capitalism, business cartels and corrupt government are the inevitable result of speed and red-light cameras.
Now you may be thinking that red-light and speed cameras are reducing accidents, making highways safer. Think again. It just ain’t so:
Cue speed cameras. In a press release about its study that is short on data but long on dubious conclusions, the IIHS proclaims:
If all U.S. communities had speed-camera programs like the one IIHS studied in Maryland’s Montgomery County, more than 21,000 fatal or incapacitating injuries would have been prevented in 2013.
That is a remarkable statement, particularly in light of what our friends at TheNewspaper.com and Maryland Drivers Alliance both point out: The accident reduction rate on speed-camera-eligible roads in Montgomery County (21.1 percent) was not as good as that of similar streets in the camera-less Fairfax County, Virginia (26.9 percent). The IIHS selected Fairfax County as a control group for the pre-and post-camera time periods it used in its report, 2004 to 2006 vs. 2008 to 2013.
Baltimore’s speed camera program was blasted by the city’s inspector general less than a year ago for mismanagement and corruption. Baltimore, corruption? I’m shocked.
What is it called when someone tries to take credit for something he had nothing to do with? Opportunistic weasel comes to mind. Whatever ones call it, it’s a nasty trick meant to deceive. Here what Patrick Bedard of Car and Driver said:
Spillover effect is IIHS’s trick for giving the cameras credit for reducing fatalities even where they aren’t. It assumes that red-light cameras at a few intersections will cause drivers to stop promptly all over town, or all over the county, or maybe all over the state, so improvements outside the cameras’ ZIP Codes are credited to them nonetheless. As statistical acrobatics go, this one is breathtaking.
Here is how the National Motorists Association concludes its report:
We can think of no better way to wrap up our criticism of the IIHS report than to quote directly from the scathing conclusion of Ron Ely from the Maryland Drivers Alliance and past recipient of the NMA’s Sentinel Award:
The real conclusion from this study should be that our roads are getting much safer without speed cameras, that better alternatives exist for controlling speeds where that is needed, and that the insurance industry does not care about and [sic] integrity of our justice system. The Insurance Industry believes that it is in their financial interest to diminish people’s legal rights so people accused of traffic violations are presumed guilty and have no defense, even to the point where individuals can be accused and found guilty of offenses that happened when they were not even present. While the insurance industry advocates for the use of speed cameras, jurisdictions such as Maryland and DC which have adopted them in far greater proportions than the rest of the US, yet Maryland and DC are the 11th and 3rd most expensive locations for Auto insurance, respectively. A fair answer to the IIHS’s conclusions would be that the insurance industry should put their money where their mouth is and lower Maryland’s insurance rates.
Like all liberal organizations, the “Insurance Institute for Highway Safety” is a corrupt organization that has as its purpose just the opposite of what its name implies. It is in reality the Insurance Institute for Increasing Insurance Company Profits. By any means necessary.
Red-Light and speed cameras exist for one reason only: they provide insurance companies, the companies that manufacture and sell the cameras, politicians and bureaucrats with opportunities for graft. They do not make our highways safer. The camera defenders know that and they don’t care. They are getting what they want and that is what they care about.
If you are not already a member of the National Motorists Association you should consider joining. It’s the only national organization fighting for your rights on the road. Don’t think that AAA is doing that, it isn’t. AAA sells insurance.
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