Most don't speed irresponsibly
A recently released official report, "In depth study of Motorcycle Accidents", states that only 3.5 per cent of crashes involved exceeding the speed limit, so most people break speed limits responsibly, according to road safety campaign Safe Speed.
Of those only 62 per cent involved the motorcyclist speeding, so only 2.2 per cent of motorcyclists were speeding when they crashed. This contrasts with literally 100 per cent of respondents who admitted speeding, with 58 per cent admitting speeding 'always' or 'frequently', said Safe Speed.
Safe Speed founder Paul Smith said: "Every single time we obtain or derive information about the involvement of 'speeding' in crash contribution the figures are absolutely tiny. While speeding is extremely commonplace, with 60 per cent of vehicles speeding at sample sites on most road types, we always find that well over 95 per cent of crashes do not involve speeding.
"One might conclude that 'speeding' is at least 10 times safer than 'not speeding' based on these figures, but the truth is that speeding and crashes take place largely at different places and different times. The reason is simple. Drivers and riders tend to speed where the road is clear and tend to slow down where there are hazards that may cause a crash. This behaviour is vital to road safety.
"Once again these figures show how misguided government road safety policy is. Ninety per cent of the effort is directed towards three per cent of the problem. Unfortunately this means that 98 per cent of crash causes are inadequately addressed -- a sin of omission that makes the roads far more dangerous than they should be.
"While motorcyclists take a great deal of criticism for being reckless speeders, this report reveals the vital truth that almost all of them use speed safely and responsibly almost all of the time."
According to Safe Speed, "it is extremely misleading when the DfT claims - as it recently has - that about 30 per cent of fatalities involve 'excessive speed'". This is, according to the campaign, because:
- Most of the 30 per cent does not involve exceeding a speed limit. 'Excessive speed' in these terms includes both exceeding a speed limit and travelling at an inappropriate speed for the conditions. We know from sample data that 70 per cent of excessive speed crashes do not involve 'speeding'.
- A significant proportion of the remainder involves extremely reckless behaviours that are alien to most of the people affected by speed enforcement.
- Such behaviours include speeding drunks, speeding stolen vehicles, reckless types racing on the highway and so on.
Safe Speed said it estimated that fewer than five per cent of all roads fatalities involve otherwise responsible motorists travelling in excess of a speed limit.
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