Speed bumps kill
Discussion
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THE young man on the ground was not my son and there was not really a lot of blood, yet seeing him lying in the road, limbs contorted and twisted beyond their normal range, I felt for him as much as if he were.
Being a Police Motorcycle Officer, I was one of the first to arrive at the scene. My bike has the ability to negotiate the myriad of traffic calming measures deemed so necessary by local councils. However, the ambulance that arrived minutes later is not so mobile over these blights.
Josh - that was the young lad’s name - was still alive but seriously injured with a suspected broken back and other unseen injuries. I made sure he could breath while I waited for the medics. Josh had fallen from his scooter, colliding with the steel pole of a speed-camera warning sign, before sustaining further injuries against a concrete traffic-calming bollard.
Once the medics had arrived, they stabilised Josh and lifted him aboard the ambulance. They needed an extra hand, so I was asked to accompany them. Siren on, we raced for the hospital; time for Josh was quickly running out. His eyes flickered open, and I could see them widen in confusion and fear as he realised how much his life was in danger. Unable to speak, he stared at each of us in turn in silent desperation.
"Hold on, son, we will soon be at the hospital, you are going to be fine," I said, not at all sure of the truth of that statement. He just stared at me, a 17-year old boy who just seconds ago was looking forward to meeting his girlfriend, with a full life ahead of him - now he was simply frightened, unable to speak - and dying.
I felt the ambulance brake hard and we all held on, then we hit the bump. Josh, strapped to the bed, bounced hard despite the restraints, the jolt causing the saline drips to fall from his arms - his eyes closed. The medics worked fast to reinsert the lines.
“Take it easy guys!” I shouted frantically to the driver, “Another bump like that and you will kill him!”
The driver ignored me, grimly doing his best to maintain as fast a speed as possible, while avoiding the speed humps and negotiating the traffic calming measures. That last bump, he saw too late. As he did the next one. Josh never opened his eyes again. When we arrived at the hospital, they pronounced him D.O.A. Another victim of our obsession with traffic speed.
According to NHS sources, as many as five hundred people lose their lives as a result of delays caused by these traffic calming measures – just as many who have died from speed related accidents. This figure is for London alone. As well as this, often ambulance drivers are prosecuted for exceeding speed limits in their haste to get to the emergency room. The government’s attitude towards speeding should be questioned.
Often inappropriately low speed restrictions on major roads are, in reality, nothing more than cash-cows for the police and councils. Accidents always happen, but they can be minimised and the opportunity for recovery optimised. Not this way. These road-calming methods, especially the road-ramps, are causing far too many unnecessary deaths and accidents and should be removed immediately.
I hope it’s not you, or your son or daughter that next dies on their way to hospital due to built-in road delays. But it will be someone else. That is a certainty.
The above story is meant as an illustration of this growing and real problem. The attached picture shows a major local fund-raising scheme and the bizarre speed limit imposed.
Peter Davidson, Frimley.
THE young man on the ground was not my son and there was not really a lot of blood, yet seeing him lying in the road, limbs contorted and twisted beyond their normal range, I felt for him as much as if he were.
Being a Police Motorcycle Officer, I was one of the first to arrive at the scene. My bike has the ability to negotiate the myriad of traffic calming measures deemed so necessary by local councils. However, the ambulance that arrived minutes later is not so mobile over these blights.
Josh - that was the young lad’s name - was still alive but seriously injured with a suspected broken back and other unseen injuries. I made sure he could breath while I waited for the medics. Josh had fallen from his scooter, colliding with the steel pole of a speed-camera warning sign, before sustaining further injuries against a concrete traffic-calming bollard.
Once the medics had arrived, they stabilised Josh and lifted him aboard the ambulance. They needed an extra hand, so I was asked to accompany them. Siren on, we raced for the hospital; time for Josh was quickly running out. His eyes flickered open, and I could see them widen in confusion and fear as he realised how much his life was in danger. Unable to speak, he stared at each of us in turn in silent desperation.
"Hold on, son, we will soon be at the hospital, you are going to be fine," I said, not at all sure of the truth of that statement. He just stared at me, a 17-year old boy who just seconds ago was looking forward to meeting his girlfriend, with a full life ahead of him - now he was simply frightened, unable to speak - and dying.
I felt the ambulance brake hard and we all held on, then we hit the bump. Josh, strapped to the bed, bounced hard despite the restraints, the jolt causing the saline drips to fall from his arms - his eyes closed. The medics worked fast to reinsert the lines.
“Take it easy guys!” I shouted frantically to the driver, “Another bump like that and you will kill him!”
The driver ignored me, grimly doing his best to maintain as fast a speed as possible, while avoiding the speed humps and negotiating the traffic calming measures. That last bump, he saw too late. As he did the next one. Josh never opened his eyes again. When we arrived at the hospital, they pronounced him D.O.A. Another victim of our obsession with traffic speed.
According to NHS sources, as many as five hundred people lose their lives as a result of delays caused by these traffic calming measures – just as many who have died from speed related accidents. This figure is for London alone. As well as this, often ambulance drivers are prosecuted for exceeding speed limits in their haste to get to the emergency room. The government’s attitude towards speeding should be questioned.
Often inappropriately low speed restrictions on major roads are, in reality, nothing more than cash-cows for the police and councils. Accidents always happen, but they can be minimised and the opportunity for recovery optimised. Not this way. These road-calming methods, especially the road-ramps, are causing far too many unnecessary deaths and accidents and should be removed immediately.
I hope it’s not you, or your son or daughter that next dies on their way to hospital due to built-in road delays. But it will be someone else. That is a certainty.
The above story is meant as an illustration of this growing and real problem. The attached picture shows a major local fund-raising scheme and the bizarre speed limit imposed.
Peter Davidson, Frimley.
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