THE ASSOCIATION OF BRITISH DRIVERS

IN SCOTLAND

---

A recent article in a major Scottish daily newspaper included a number of potentially libellous statements about the ABD. For reasons of Copyright we cannot copy the article verbatim, but we can summarise the most serious accusations:

It starts by claiming that it is Drivers who vandalise 'speed cameras'. And then goes on to allege that "a group of undercover motorists in England even specialises in spray-painting lenses".
But perhaps the worst item is a claim that the ABD has said it "does not condone speed", omitting the qualifying words "abuse" or "misuse" of speed which are always used in the ABD Website or Press Releases.

The ABD hit back by arranging for a letter of rebuttal to be printed in the Newspaper, as follows:-

"Speed is not a major cause of accidents

Please allow me, as the senior member of the Association of British Drivers in Scotland, to respond to your article "Why give in to drivers who vandalise speed cameras".

There is no evidence that the people currently vandalising "speed cameras" are drivers. I doubt they are, and if they were, we might expect the Police to be very interested. The same applies to the claim that "A group of undercover motorists in England specialise in spray-painting lenses". May we take it that details of these claims are being given to the Police?

The claim that the ABD has said it "does not condone speed" is meaningless - speed can be 1mph or 100mph - and must be qualified. Wherever it is mentioned in our publicity or website, it is qualified as "the abuse of speed", or "the potential misuse of speed", or similar. By omitting the qualifier a false impression is given: are we expected to believe that this omission is accidental?

There is much other misinformation in the article, such as the claim that "Other surveys found that speed is a major factor in half of all road crashes in the United Kingdom". This is usually stated as "one-third" rather than half, and even that is wildly exaggerated and generally known as the "one-third lie". The true figure from police statistics, is only around 7%.

Our annual toll of deaths in road accidents, about 3150, is the lowest in the world and less than the toll of accidents in the home. That does not mean that we should not try to improve it further, but it does put it in context."

 

SCOTTISH HOME PAGE