Ops Sikap 24 'Eidulfitri 2011- Did it really fail?

289 deaths from 19,606 road accidents.

18% more fatalities and 16.5% more accidents as compared to 'Eidulfitri of 2010.

Sounds very dire doesn't it?

I'm only elaborating on Big Boss' observation on this. Feel free to agree or disagree.

The true failure here may not be the operation itself, but the way it is reported.

If you notice, the report focuses on absolute numbers- number of deaths; number of accidents.

But have we ever wondered how many lives were saved or how many accidents prevented because of the operation?

A good way to clarify this would be to find out how many vehicles were involved in accidents versus the best approximate number of vehicles actually on the road during the period.

Then we should compare this to the previous years ratio. Or even better would be to compare it with current everyday ratio.

For example, lets say, Ops Sikap 'Eidulfitri 2011 shows 20% of vehicles on the road during the period were involved in accidents. While the statistics for 2010 showed only a 15% accident rate.

Now, doesn't this show more clearly whether Ops Sikap 24 succeeded or failed?

Or we determined that Ops Sikap 'Eidulfitri 2011 shows 20% accident rate. But then, the current everyday accident rate is also around 20%.

This would clearly illustrate that high road accident rate is a perennial issue instead of a seasonal problem and must be addressed accordingly.

I wrote this entry because I agreed with Big Boss' reasoning.

The absolute numbers given were tragic- good fodder for the newspapers but did not represent the real picture nor the actual challenges faced by our traffic police force.

I am not sure if is even feasible to collect the data needed to report the outcome of the operations as suggested.

However, I strongly believe that the manner of reporting must be improved.

It is useless to simply throw out numbers without putting it into the right context and perspective.

P.S. Though I'm sure it doesn't matter much to anyone if I update or not, just in case you have been waiting for it, you have Nuke to thank for this entry. So go increase his traffic and pile praises in his comment box, okay?