Proportion of accidents caused by speeding?
Proportion of accidents caused by speeding?
Author
Discussion

TheGreatSoprendo

Original Poster:

5,288 posts

279 months

Friday 11th January 2019
quotequote all
Does anyone have any reasonably reliable and up to date figures for the proportion of accidents caused by speeding? I've found some older articles such as these:

http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/19/1974.asp
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1061808/S...

but struggling with anything up to date.

Walter E. Kurtz

51 posts

94 months

Friday 11th January 2019
quotequote all
Would you define 'speeding' as 'exceeding the posted speed limit', or 'excessive speed appropriate to the conditions'?

vonhosen

40,597 posts

247 months

Friday 11th January 2019
quotequote all
Look here

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-set...


2017 data won't be available until June 2019.

zygalski

7,759 posts

175 months

Friday 11th January 2019
quotequote all
Walter E. Kurtz said:
Would you define 'speeding' as 'exceeding the posted speed limit', or 'excessive speed appropriate to the conditions'?
I think we're all agreed that reckless speeding is something that someone else does.
We're all advanced driver's here on PH, and can flout the speeding laws safely and at our own discretion.

TheGreatSoprendo

Original Poster:

5,288 posts

279 months

Friday 11th January 2019
quotequote all
Walter E. Kurtz said:
Would you define 'speeding' as 'exceeding the posted speed limit', or 'excessive speed appropriate to the conditions'?
The former, ideally.

Len Woodman

168 posts

143 months

Friday 11th January 2019
quotequote all
A bit dated but good background information - TRL 323 - https://trl.co.uk/sites/default/files/TRL323.pdf

Graveworm

9,233 posts

101 months

Friday 11th January 2019
quotequote all
TheGreatSoprendo said:
The former, ideally.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/743095/ras50001.ods
This has both - accidents where at least one vehicle was exceeding the speed limit in 2017 5% Accidents where travelling to fast for the conditions 6%

TheGreatSoprendo

Original Poster:

5,288 posts

279 months

Friday 11th January 2019
quotequote all
vonhosen said:
Look here

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-set...


2017 data won't be available until June 2019.
Thanks.

For anyone interested, from the 2017 data, I make it 5.2% of all accidents attributable to exceeding the speed limit and 6.4% attributable travelling too fast for the conditions.

Graveworm

9,233 posts

101 months

Friday 11th January 2019
quotequote all
Always interesting to repeat that cross referencing with this shows ..

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/governmen...

vehicles which are exceeding the speed limit are far less likely to be involved in accidents.

Pica-Pica

16,605 posts

114 months

Friday 11th January 2019
quotequote all
TheGreatSoprendo said:
For anyone interested, from the 2017 data, I make it 5.2% of all accidents attributable to exceeding the speed limit and 6.4% attributable travelling too fast for the conditions.
None the wiser. Is the 5.2% a subset of the 6.4% ?
Or are they separate categories that do not overlap? That is is the 6.4% below the posted limit, but unsafe for the conditions - which could be; a bend, ice, wet etc.

scarble

5,277 posts

187 months

Friday 11th January 2019
quotequote all
Yes that's what I'm wondering.
Also a breakdown by severity is perhaps more relevant?
Let's say hypothetically 90% of addicdents occur in supermarket carparks, that doesn't mean that supermarket carparks are dangerous necessarily.

Graveworm

9,233 posts

101 months

Friday 11th January 2019
quotequote all
Pica-Pica said:
None the wiser. Is the 5.2% a subset of the 6.4% ?
Or are they separate categories that do not overlap? That is is the 6.4% below the posted limit, but unsafe for the conditions - which could be; a bend, ice, wet etc.
It's 2 separate pieces of data. They can record one both or neither, So it's possible to be going too fast for the conditions and not exceed the speed limit, exceed the speed limit but not go too fast for the conditions, neither or both. It make sense if you see the brake down by injury and severity.

Crackie

6,386 posts

272 months

Friday 11th January 2019
quotequote all
zygalski said:
I think we're all agreed that reckless speeding is something that someone else does.
We're all advanced driver's here on PH, and can flout the speeding laws safely and at our own discretion.
Feel better now?

Graveworm

9,233 posts

101 months

Friday 11th January 2019
quotequote all
scarble said:
Yes that's what I'm wondering.
Also a breakdown by severity is perhaps more relevant?
Let's say hypothetically 90% of addicdents occur in supermarket carparks, that doesn't mean that supermarket carparks are dangerous necessarily.
Broken down by severity it's 14% speeding 9% too fast for Fatal accidents, 7% speeding and 7% travelling too fast for serious injuries, 5% speeding 6% travelling too fast for minor injuries and overall. It makes sense as faster speed = greater severity wheras too fast = causation therefore more likely.

warch

2,941 posts

184 months

Friday 11th January 2019
quotequote all
It can be difficult to determine any trends from statistics.

I'd say you're much more likely to hit another car at >5mph in a crowded car park, which will cause an a non speed related accident but one which is not likely to be very serious in terms of damage or injuries.

On the other hand if you habitually drive at 120mph on empty dual carriageways you are fairly unlikely to have an accident, but any accident you do have is likely to be serious to say the least.

The problem is that statistics tend to get tweaked and manipulated to suit various agendas.



coldel

11,133 posts

176 months

Friday 11th January 2019
quotequote all
warch said:
It can be difficult to determine any trends from statistics.

I'd say you're much more likely to hit another car at >5mph in a crowded car park, which will cause an a non speed related accident but one which is not likely to be very serious in terms of damage or injuries.

On the other hand if you habitually drive at 120mph on empty dual carriageways you are fairly unlikely to have an accident, but any accident you do have is likely to be serious to say the least.

The problem is that statistics tend to get tweaked and manipulated to suit various agendas.
There is no problem with statistics if you understand the source, the methodology of how they were collected and always understand the context within which you are using them. Of course pulling a number from a Daily Mail article on immigration is going to be treated with caution but pulling numbers from a census you can be less cautious around.

In terms of the question in hand, the caveats I would throw in is that many accidents are unreported, many accidents could be reported with incorrect speeds associated with them etc. I would imagine most 'accidents' are low speed bumps and you could argue there are so few 'speeding' accidents is because a lot of people do not speed...


Edited by coldel on Friday 11th January 11:25

cptsideways

13,884 posts

282 months

Friday 11th January 2019
quotequote all
Its fairly obvious its one of the lower causation factors. Would rather concentration levels & driving standards be raised, epidemic levels of phone use & drug driving penalised with lifetime bans & cars crushed.

Then we might see some reductions in accidents

LosingGrip

8,865 posts

189 months

Friday 11th January 2019
quotequote all
I've not read any of the links as at work, but it may not be the speed that causes the crash (although if you can't stop in time, you are going to fast most the time). But at higher speeds there are more forces involved that causes more injuries/deaths damage.

Graveworm

9,233 posts

101 months

Friday 11th January 2019
quotequote all
Also interesting is "We" are most law abiding on Rural NSL roads which are the most dangerous roads. But no more dangerous than the same roads in the Isle of Man where there are no speed limits and what you would assume to be aggravating "Danger magnet" impacts.

Cooperman

4,428 posts

280 months

Friday 11th January 2019
quotequote all
What is clear is that significantly improved road safety, or indeed any improvement, will not be achieved by the current concentration on 'driving by numbers'.

Clearly driving speeds need to be monitored and action taken against prolific offenders, but it does seem that the only real road-safety agenda is on preventing the breaking of posted limits and the creeping reduction in those limits.

A good example of this is the growth of the 'Speed Indicator Display Signs'. On a country road journey of 12 miles, I passed three of them yesterday. They are funded by the County Councils at a cost of £5000 each. That's right, our allegedly cash-strapped councils are spending £5000 plus fitting costs for each one. Apparently they don't record vehicle details, but they log the number and speed of each vehicle passing in excess of the limit. I asked a good friend of mine, who is a County Councillor, if the data would be used to analyse the speeds and the accident rate and adjust the limit upwards if it were to be found that there were no accidents during that time and mean speed is thus safe and higher than existing. He said that wouldn't happen, but that police enforcement by speed cameras would result if a large number of speeding vehicles was apparent. 'Nice little earner then'.