"Speed Kills" send wrong message to dangerous drivers

[Peter Ward]

supermono said:

Or in summary, the goverment want us to crash slowly, wheras we would rather not crash at all. SM

Spot on! But so far the government hasn't noticed that crashing slowly doesn't reduce deaths, because deaths can happen even at slow speeds. Whereas avoiding crashes can be successful even at high speeds. I wonder what it will take?

[dcb]

LRdriver II said:

Even the insurance companies now are seeing it as "normal" that you have 3-6 points on your ticket, and not penalizing you for them..

Exactly.

Decades ago, getting a speeding ticket was serious, and your insurance got loaded up as a result.

Nowadays, millions of folks get speeding tickets every year, and the insurance companies don't bat an eyelid.

It's also interesting to note that even though millions of motorists have been done for speeding, there hasn't been as much as a 5% change in the number of people killed on our roads per year.

I conclude that the "speed kills" message is false, because it is not having the claimed effect of a reduction in deaths on the road.

I exclude the counts of serious injured because the definition of "serious" can be changed to suit the desired outcome.

[TOPTON]

henrycrun said:

voyds9 said: Tried driving the other day at 30mph and it was incredibly difficult, I spent nearly the whole time watching the speedo and altering power to try to keep at 30mph. Is it time for some refresher driving lessons ?

Totally aggree, I charge a reasonable rate

The official figures for crashes and serios injury on our roads are, for the most part within the speed limit for that particular road. It is more to do with driving too fast for the conditions at the time. We all know that camaras etc are just cash machines and statistic makers to make the ruling body look like they are doing something positive to make roads safer. But sadly, they are here to stay. Driving within the speed limit is not really that difficult. No person whoever learnt to drive was ever taught to ignore the speed limit and drive at what they think is safe at that time. I hear so many time "I don't have to drive properly now because I have passed my test"

[ripton]

hedders said:

I have thought that way for a while.. My dad just can't seem to get to grips with this and insists on watching out for pedestrians / children etc instead of searching for discretely parked vans. Me, I say screw the pedestrians, the scams are there to help them, so I don't need to anymore! >> Edited by hedders on Sunday 2nd October 10:53

If it is a struggle to drive at thirty in an area where children arelikely to pop out and pay attention to what is happening beyond the speedo then there are two simple courses of action a) hand your license back or b) drive slower than thirty so you don´t need to worry about the speedo.

As for "screw the pedestrians" comment you might want to think about option a.

>> Edited by ripton on Wednesday 5th October 17:01