From the official government website on driving tests...TEN THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT SPEED
ON THE ROAD
In 1997 3,599 people were killed and 32,3945 injured (42,967 seriously) in road traffic accidents.
By far the biggest single cause was driving too fast for the conditions.
When asked what drivers can do to avoid accidents, 70% of survey respondents say drive more slowly.
When asked what they personally could do, only 30% admit they could drive more slowly themselves.
Two thirds of all accidents in which people are injured happen in urban roads with a maximum speed limit of 30mph.
70% of people break the speed limit on these roads.
The difference between 30mph and 35mph is an extra stopping distance of six and a half metres, longer than two Minis.
If a car is dropped nose down from the height of a two storey building, it will be travelling at around 30mph when it hits the ground.
The impact of a vehicle travelling at 35mph is 36% harder.
At 35mph you are twice as likely to kill someone as you are at 30mph.
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Few debateable points to discuss....
Surely to avoid accidents, driving safer would be better than driving slower, being more observant?
Of course more accidents happen in residential areas.....thats where people live, and where people walk infront of cars [eg. my brother], funny how only fast enough vehicles can drive on motorways,and they are the safest roads......
Can someone explain the "If a car is dropped nose down from the height of a two storey building, it will be travelling at around 30mph when it hits the ground." surely the force of a car dropping on you is more than the force being hit sideways by a car? Or am I missing something, again, [Lesie!! ;-)]
Also, explain the "The impact of a vehicle travelling at 35mph is 36% harder. " harder than what speed? No speed? Thats not suprising.
O, and finally, hitting a stray walker due to not paying attention has 100% chance of hurting the person to some degree.
avoid people [if in car], avoid vehicles [if not]
Kev
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Kev wrote:
> In 1997 3,599 people were killed and 32,3945 injured (42,967
> seriously) in road traffic accidents.
> By far the biggest single cause was driving too fast for the
> conditions.
well, they may have their figures right in the first instance, but what are the percentages in the second? "By far" doesn't cut it.
I'm sure that: - driving without due care and attention; driving while under the influence; reckless driving, driving an unroadworthy vehicle, disobeying traffic laws, etc etc are also big causes.
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Kev wrote:
> In 1997 3,599 people were killed and 32,3945 injured (42,967
> seriously) in road traffic accidents.
> By far the biggest single cause was driving too fast for the
> conditions.
well, they may have their figures right in the first instance, but what are the percentages in the second? "By far" doesn't cut it.
I'm sure that: - driving without due care and attention; driving while under the influence; reckless driving, driving without due care and attention, driving an unroadworthy vehicle, disobeying traffic laws, etc etc are also big causes.
(*Oh toss! I hit the wrong button!)
Anyway, let's re-examine those factors ...
driving *TOO FAST* without due care and attention; driving *TOO FAST* while under the influence; reckless driving *TOO FAST* , driving *TOO FAST* without due care and attention, driving an unroadworthy vehicle *TOO FAST* , disobeying traffic laws (while driving *TOO FAST* - ie shooting red lights), etc etc are also big causes.
"Lies, damned lies and statistics!"
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> By far the biggest single cause was driving too fast for the
> conditions.
This isn't the same as speeding. I'm going to hazzard a guess but I'd say that 100% of road accidents involve speed simply because stationary vehicles aren't involved in too many accidents on their own.
The 36% figure is based on the fact that the forward force of an object increases as a square of it's velocity (not to be confused with momentum which is linear).
>At 35mph you are twice as likely to kill someone as you are at 30mph.
I think this is based on actually hitting someone at 35 mph rather than 30. One would hope that an observant individual will have tried to use their brakes rather than left the vehicle on cruise control to plow through the hapless pedestrian.
The problem with the whole anti-speeding thing is it does give the impression that speed limits are "safe" rather than at acceptable risk levels.
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Two quotes from the above:
"When asked what drivers can do to avoid accidents, 70% of survey respondents say drive more slowly. "
and
"If a car is dropped nose down from the height of a two storey building, it will be travelling at around 30mph when it hits the ground. "
The first quote shows how the "speed kills" mantra has distorted safety issues, it appears that 70% of drivers now believe that they can avoid accidents by other people going more slowly, even with their eyes shut and mind out of gear.
The second quote is totally irrelevant. Everybody knows what a car travelling horizontally at 30 mph looks like. How will imagining what it looks like travelling vertically help?
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>"If a car is dropped nose down from the height of a two storey building, it will be travelling at around 30mph when it hits the ground. "
Didn't Stan and Ollie try this with a piano?
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So we can now add "Beware Falling Cars" to those other 2 pointless road signs, "beware falling rocks" and "Danger,low flying aeroplanes".
I think it might be more fruitful to look at the circumstances of any road accident, rather than the speed, when drawing conclusions about causes. I'd hazzard a guess that risky overtaking plays a large part.
I see people cutting it fine every journey. If someone spends a working lifetime taking one 10% risk every day, then an accident becomes pretty inevitable eventually.
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Pedestrains+cars+poorly trained drivers=3599 people killed
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As 85% of pedestrian accidents are caused by the pedestrians themselves not taking proper care, all this talk about 'speed kills' is utter claptrap. Sure, a higher impact speed means a more serious injury, but rather than choking our roads to death with stupidly low limits, wouldn't it be far more effective to go back to the days of the 'kerb drill', when instuctions on how to cross the road safely were printed on our school books and the Green Cross man appeared on the telly?
The latest madness (in some loony-lefty boroughs of London) is to turn our streets into play areas, where cars have to give way to kids!
All this crass stupidity (based on a dogmatic hatred of the car and personal freedom) will change only with a change of government. Think.
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What makes you think a change of government will help? Did the 'blues' reduce fuel costs in office? No, they introduced the price accelerator. Did they repeal or revise motorway speed limits? Not that I noticed. More or fewer speed humps? No prizes.
And play streets have been around for years. They were in the Highway Code over 30 years ago (I remember because I was asked a question during my test). Such streets were usually closed to motor vehicles for set times. I presume they're still around, somewhere.
I'll guarantee that NO political party will give any cast iron promises about anything which might be regarded as driver friendly.
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Andy,
I agree with you. Teaching kids that roads are for playing in borders on the lunatic.
They are then led to believe that all roads are safe playgrounds and the driver always be able to stop, no matter what dumb things they do.
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Yep, they have to be more vigilant, exercise hazard judgement more frequently, pay due respect to hazards... or they die...
..whereas U.K. drivers are less vigilant, and don't understand the impact (literally!!) of hazards..
India, Azerbaijan, Nigeria. Maybe we can have the "Lagos/Delhi/Baku traffic Advanced Driving Course"??
rg
P.S....but why has South Africa got such an appalling record? Has been infected with Northern European standards?
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we get the worst of the first world with the worst of the third world!
For example, this morning, on the N1 into town (3 lane highway, the MAIN route from Cape Town to Johannesburg) was a gentleman on his bicycle, riding along in hard-shoulder adjacent to the fast lane...
Two k's further on, a bloke was pushing a supermarket trolley loaded 8 foot upwards with odl newspapers... on the hard shoulder (inside) ... and on the same road you have some stockbroker type cruising along on monday-morning autopilot in his top range BMW or MB...
Recipe for disaster ...
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Do you also get the ones who like to catch up with their reading when driving? Oops, nearly missed my exit! Swings across three lanes of traffic...........
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Our local "public transport" is in the form of minibus taxis - mostly Nissan and Toyota. They have countless accidents, as they are often poorly maintained, and hoplessly overloaded.
A few years back, one was caught without a steering wheel. The driver was steering by means of molegrips attached to the top of the steering column!!!
Apparently, this is quite a common event - without a steering whell, another passenger can fit on the bench front seat ...
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Peep at this and then tell us the Third World driver is safer than the UK variety.
www.bast.de/htdocs/fachthemen/irtad//english/we2.h...l
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Ian,
I can echo this in Manila, but how do you like the addition of a guy propelling himself along in a wheelchair in the fast lane of a major thoroughfare? Average speed of traffic (I was keeping up -- 120 kph). That's in addition to the cyclists, walkers, buffalo carts, vendors selling chewing gum, beggars, or just people who decide they want to see what's on the other side of the road, never mind the traffic.
Then again comes a guy towards me on the wrong side. He's just tanked up at the Caltex and its quicker for him to go back the wrong way down the street to get where he wants to go than to carry on the same direction as everyone else till he can make a U-turn. He has his lights full on, plus his hazard flashers and he's leaning on the horn. That means I have to give way to him.
Another guy tailgates me furiously, hazards and lights on, horn blaring, keeps trying to get past (this in a regular 2 lane street with oncoming traffic. We end up paralklel at the traffic lights. He yells at me why didn't I go faster because he's in a hurry. I say yeah but how does that affect me and he spits on my window.
Amazingly there are very few accidents that any one sees, and parking shunts far outnumber others. Mind you, when there is an accident it tends to be spectacular (2 buses collide at combined spewed of 200 kph, 120 dead).
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