The Spectator

Barometer | 12 November 2015

Plus: police cameras and road deaths; commuting and happiness; football shares

issue 14 November 2015

A marathon of cheats

Russian athletes may be stripped of the medals they won at the 2012 Olympics, but what of the earliest-known drug-taker in the modern Olympics? Thomas Hicks won the 1904 marathon in St Louis after taking two doses of brandy laced with strychnine.
—Hicks collapsed on the finishing line and had to be revived. There being no rule at the time against drugs, he was allowed to keep his gold medal.
— Not so a man who reached the finishing line ahead of him, fellow American Fred Lorz. He was disqualified after admitting that he had taken a car most of the way.

Police, camera, revenue

The police and crime commissioner for Bedfordshire is thinking of turning on speed cameras on the M1 24 hours a day. On which roads do most fatalities occur?

DEATH TOLL IN 2014
Urban A roads 339
Urban B roads 111
Urban minor roads 302
Extra-urban A roads 578
Extra-urban B roads 112
Extra-urban minor roads 131
Motorways 85

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