April 11, 2014

Past performance no guarantee of future results

From the ACC

Julius Caesar was warned to beware the ‘Ides of March’. And perhaps Kiwis should take extra caution this Sunday.

That’s because April the 13th last year was the day on which the highest number of injuries happened during 2013.

Of course, April 13th wasn’t a Sunday last year. ACC helpfully give us the top five days last year for injuries

  • 13 April – 8,067 claims
  • 6 April – 8,024 claims
  • 11 May – 7,988 claims
  • 18 May – 7,757 claims
  • 8 June – 7,732 claims.

What do all these days have in common? Well, let’s just say that the ACC warning for Sunday April 13 may be a bit late.

 

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Thomas Lumley (@tslumley) is Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Auckland. His research interests include semiparametric models, survey sampling, statistical computing, foundations of statistics, and whatever methodological problems his medical collaborators come up with. He also blogs at Biased and Inefficient See all posts by Thomas Lumley »

Comments

  • avatar
    Megan Pledger

    It’s been raining for the last 5 days in Wellington so sports grounds are likely to be closed but if sport is on tomorrow the grounds are going to be very, very soft.

    11 years ago

    • avatar
      Megan Pledger

      It’s now Saturday and still raining in Wellington but sport is on. :->

      11 years ago

  • avatar
    Wayne Goodall

    Have I missed something here? Unless I am mistaken (and I often am) all 5 days are Saturdays and the top 2 were near the start of winter sports. I must have missed something, surely the ACC knows more about the pattern of claims than the release suggests.

    11 years ago

    • avatar
      Thomas Lumley

      Thats the point. The top days last year were all Saturdays. The ACC is warning about the same dates this year, but that doesn’t make sense. They should be warning about today, not tomorrow.

      11 years ago