UK road deaths hit 'record low'

Dolph · 25 Jun 2009 at 12:34

I wonder if we'll get a chance to read the full report including accident causes or not...

Matt82 · 25 Jun 2009 at 13:20

Overlag said:
they are already miles better than the ones shown in the highway code book.

although i think 1.6mm tread depth is not enough at all.

mine are on 1.6mm at the moment and are still good. they were a good tyre to start with though. think about those people on dodgy second hand remould tyres that are down to 1.6mm. that sort of thing really ought to be curbed

something daft already!! · 25 Jun 2009 at 13:21

I think its due to the price of fuel. No-one wants to drive too far these days, they cant afford to.

Overlag · 25 Jun 2009 at 13:21

Matt82 said:
mine are on 1.6mm at the moment and are still good. they were a good tyre to start with though. think about those people on dodgy second hand remould tyres that are down to 1.6mm. that sort of thing really ought to be curbed

good in the dry but.... :eek:

in the wet?

yeah, linglongs with 1.6mm should be outlawed... hell the tyres shouldn't be sold at all

Duke · 25 Jun 2009 at 13:27

Overlag said:
yeah, linglongs with 1.6mm should be outlawed... hell the tyres shouldn't be sold at all

This is what I meant really. Increase the minimum standards for tyre manufacturers. Although I'm sure they are working on something at the moment to do this & decrease road noise (and all the crap about being more green as well of course :rolleyes:

).

Rich_L · 25 Jun 2009 at 13:33

Dolph said:
I wonder if we'll get a chance to read the full report including accident causes or not...

Why wouldn't you? The full 2007 report is available on the DoT website, published in September with the headline figures released in June, so I suspect in September the full report will be available.

Oh wait, is there supposed to be some government conspiracy here?

Matt82 · 25 Jun 2009 at 13:37

Overlag said:
good in the dry but.... in the wet?

yeah, linglongs with 1.6mm should be outlawed... hell the tyres shouldn't be sold at all

the whole french leg of the trip out to le mans was on water logged motorways, tons of standing water and mine really were fine. obviously we werent going big speeds at all (60mph 70mph) but theyre still safe to drive in the wet.

another set are going on this friday... new shooooooooes

Dolph · 25 Jun 2009 at 13:39

Rich_L said:
Why wouldn't you? The full 2007 report is available on the DoT website, published in September with the headline figures released in June, so I suspect in September the full report will be available.

Oh wait, is there supposed to be some government conspiracy here?

Not conspiracy, just bad policy and incompentance that means this decrease is not something to celebrate, because we would have been here years ago if there had been a good road safety police in place.

The 2007 report here shows this just as well.

http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/statistic...asualtiesgbar/roadcasualtiesgreatbritain20071

http://www.dft.gov.uk/excel/173025/221412/221549/227755/2856721/article4contributoryfa1.xls

Contributory factors for exceeding the speed limit... 6% of all accidents. (Table 4b)

Road safety policy focus is pretty much entirely on that 6%... What's going to fix the other 94%?

Rich_L · 25 Jun 2009 at 14:29

Yes I'm well aware of those links, I did just refer to them after all

Just wondering why you'd think that we wouldn't be able to see this years figures?

Sin_Chase · 25 Jun 2009 at 14:34

Nothing to do with the progression of safety tech in cars improving and as time goes on older tech vehicles falling off the road (not literally

)

Gaygle · 25 Jun 2009 at 14:36

Entai said:
How long untill someone links this report with the number of safety cameras about having gone up a vast amount in the same time frame.

They will just see that number of cameras about goes up, number of deaths goes down.........

So they will only use it as a reason for even more cameras, although anyone with half a brain, can see that there is no real link between the two.

This is the first thing i thought too...

They'll ignore the fact that in SY despite a huge increase in speed cameras, road deaths have increased quite a lot (Source: Traffic Cops)

Dolph · 25 Jun 2009 at 14:38

Rich_L said:
Yes I'm well aware of those links, I did just refer to them after all

Just wondering why you'd think that we wouldn't be able to see this years figures?

The government has a history of surpressing, burying or withdrawing funding from road safety studies when they start to show that targeting speeding is not the answer.

So I'm fully expecting this to be ignored, buried or generally surpressed, much as the last one was (big press release followed by very quiet data release) when it's made clear that it shows that most of the government's road safety policy is wrong, and most of their catchphrases surrounding the issue have no factual backing whatsoever.

racerboy59 · 26 Jun 2009 at 16:53

Probably because of the recession, people have less money available to drive around with. less cars = less accidents.

n3vrmind · 26 Jun 2009 at 16:55

racerboy59 said:
Probably because of the recession, people have less money available to drive around with. less cars = less accidents.

I hadnt thought of that, its amazing just how many things this could be attributed to isnt it.

Overlag · 26 Jun 2009 at 18:07

n3vrmind said:
I hadnt thought of that, its amazing just how many things this could be attributed to isnt it.

roads have been a little quieter lately. I loved the winter when there was a few drops of snow, and no one came out because of the dangerous conditions

miniyazz · 26 Jun 2009 at 23:24

n3vrmind said:
If i have to drive at 60mph i cant run the car in 6th gear, it has to be in 5th and the revs/distance travelled ratio is higher. the engine does more work to travel the same distance

Really? On a flat road, when I don't need acceleration, 5th gear is OK for me at 30. Though down to 4th if a hill presents. 60 hardly seems too slow for 6th.. unless you want to have the acceleration to overtake nippily, but if that's particularly important you'd probably use 4th at that speed anyway..

cheets64 · 27 Jun 2009 at 00:33

Why people need to bang on about speed cameras, simply don't go above the speed limit, its not hard.

The road conditions are bad but they very rarely cause accidents.

Dolph · 27 Jun 2009 at 00:49

cheets64 said:
Why people need to bang on about speed cameras, simply don't go above the speed limit, its not hard.

The road conditions are bad but they very rarely cause accidents.

I refer you to the figures I gave above. Road Enviroment contributes 3x as many kills and serious injuries as exceeding the speed limit.

cheets64 · 27 Jun 2009 at 00:55

What consits of the Road Enviroment, pot hole, worn away tarmac or blind bends, diesel and badgers. All part of the "Road Enviroment"

rypt · 27 Jun 2009 at 00:55

Speed limits are set arbitrarily though cheets; very rarely is the speedlimit set by a body of people who have an understanding of car control; car crashes and so on - rather they are set by (local) politicians to appease some sort of campaign.

This means that often the limit is far too low for what the road allows