UK Bishop blesses gritters!

[cjr23]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england...shire-11805752

The Bishop of Lincoln is out for the annual blessing of the county's road gritters - the county's road deaths have apparently fallen since he started ths in 2003. I realy think I should look at this in detail, might just do that! Still it's amusing and rather sweet. A rather "prayers on" approach for the CofE, more redolent of the 13th century!

Ok, from the Department of Transport figures to 2008, being all I have easy access to, Lincolnshire Road Deaths, and after the slash / Norfolk road deaths and then the / thrid set are Suffolk road deaths. I chose Norfolk & Suffolk as similar terrain in part, and as far as i know the bishops there do not bless the gritters!

1999 - 104 / 71 / 48
2000 - 71 / 75 / 56
2001 - 84 / 75 / 53
2002 - 91 / 77 / 43
2003 - 104 / 62 / 60 * blessing starts winter 2003
2004 - 77 / 63 / 42
2005 - 69 / 53 / 36
2006 - 66 / 66 / 47
2007 - 79 / 56 / 39
2008 - 51 / 38 / 31

I have no later data. What is clear is a) Lincolnshire has a higher rate of fatalites than East Anglia does, but all three are in decline.


Not wanting to try and work out which 2003 deaths were before the blessing and which after, I just did the obvious simple maths - average of deaths prior to 2003, and post 2003.

Lincolnshire

Preblessing 87.5
Post-blessing 68.4
Drop of 22%

Now the two un-blessed counties!


Norfolk

Preblessing 74.5
Post-blessing 55.2
Drop of 26%


Suffolk

Preblessing 50
Post-blessing 39
Drop of 22%

Conclusion: Blessing, while admirable and worthy, has not resulted i any effect on road deaths as far as I can see in the county. Still good publicity for road safety awareness.


Well, I guess my research is a bit coarse - one would not expect gritters to have much effect on road deaths exept in the winter, and I could therefore say take fatality numbers in November, December, January & February for each county.

I am trying to weigh up how long that wil take me to research versus the fact the numbers being so small one will probably not get a very reliable figure, but if the effect was marked it should show up in the overall figures anyway??? I only note this because my methodology is a bit crude, and could in theory be masking an effect, as L'm testing total RTA fatalities per annum per county, rather than the actual claim made - that holy gritters are more efficacious!

cj x

[brianp]

Ok, from the Department of Transport figures to 2008, being all I have easy access to, Lincolnshire Road Deaths, and after the slash / Norfolk road deaths and then the / thrid set are Suffolk road deaths. I chose Norfolk & Suffolk as similar terrain in part, and as far as i know the bishops there do not bless the gritters!

Nice work.