Irresponsible statistics & reporting.

There's a posting by trailing spouse on Gulf News' report that statistics show Indians & Pakistanis are the worst drivers.

It reminded me that I was going to write on the subject too, because it is totally irresponsible reporting. If these are truly the statistics published by the RTA, then they are at fault for publishing partial and misleading statistics. And Gulf News is at fault for not delving deeper and giving us the true picture.

If Gulf News have mis- or partially-reported the statistics, that is appalling 'journalism'.

The report shows unacceptable statistical anomalies, partial information at best, is guilty of not comparing like with like.

For example, it tells us that Pakistani drivers caused the maximum number of road deaths, while Indians caused most accidents in Dubai in the first half of the year. It doesn't tell us what percentage of drivers are Indian or Pakistani, so the statistic is meaningless. If, for argument's sake, Indians cause 30% of accidents but make up 50% of all drivers, the stat. gives a different picture.

Another example:
Indians caused most accidents in Dubai in the first half of the year, according to statistics released by the Roads and Transport Authority. It goes on: Indians committed 228 accidents causing 30 deaths and 344 injuries, which is 19.2 per cent of total accident victims.

You see, "caused most accidents" is compared with "is 19.2% of total accident victims."

Is it "accidents" or "accident victims" we're looking at? They are very different things.

Why accidents need to be presented by nationality is questionable. But if stats. are going to be presented in that way, then let's have the full picture so that they actually mean something.

Now of course it may be true that one particular nationality is over-represented in causing accidents. If it is true, and if South Asians are guilty of it, there's a sobering fact that trailing spouse reminds us of - they have to take lessons and pass the driving test in the UAE because their home licences are not accepted for transfer.

And one other point - sub-Continentals "cause" accidents while GCC nationals are "involved in" accidents. I quote: "Pakistani drivers caused the maximum number of road deaths, while Indians caused most accidents...GCC nationals were involved in 163 accidents"