Britain's Fastest Speeders

Dolph · 13 Dec 2010 at 23:38

C.R.A.Z.Y said:
Hmmm that's pretty debatable, I haven't seen any conclusive data that suggests that the faster you go the probability of an accident is not effected, simple logic and laws of physics suggest to me that there is obviously an increase in probability!

What isn't debatable and has stacks of data/stats backing it up is the FACT that the severity of injuries at an accident is ABSOLUTELY effected by speed, ie the faster the cars are traveling the more severe the injuries. Ergo speeding is dangerous.

Speeding, according to the government's own figures (source) is a causal factor in 5% of accidents. that means that tackling speeding can only ever reduce accidents by 5%...

Furthermore, impact speeds depend on an awful lot more than just the free travelling speed of the vehicle, and impact forces even more...

Treat the causes of accidents, and the incidental speed is also irrelevant...

Fr0dders · 13 Dec 2010 at 23:39

*edit* nevermind. Dolph was there before me.

Meridian · 14 Dec 2010 at 06:29

Dolph said:
Treat the causes of accidents, and the incidental speed is also irrelevant...

The cause of accidents is generally people. I agree with you, but I'm not sure how you plan to proceed? Some accidents are caused by people who are genuinely bad drivers, but I would guess that the majority are by drivers of all standards making single bad decisions. Which is why most accidents involve vehicles overtaking or turning at junctions: two circumstances where timing is all.

M

Dolph · 14 Dec 2010 at 07:47

Meridian said:
The cause of accidents is generally people. I agree with you, but I'm not sure how you plan to proceed? Some accidents are caused by people who are genuinely bad drivers, but I would guess that the majority are by drivers of all standards making single bad decisions. Which is why most accidents involve vehicles overtaking or turning at junctions: two circumstances where timing is all.

M

More training, better policing of general driver behaviour, and an acknowledgement that no matter what you do, you can't prevent all accidents perhaps? An acknowledgement that not everyone should be driving, and that driving is not just 'something you do' would help as well.

I'm actually all for compulsory retesting with a much more difficult test than at present, but that would be horrendously unpopular, and no doubt the government would bugger it up turning it into a money spinner rather than anything useful for safety.

Conanius · 14 Dec 2010 at 08:14

I remember reading about a case in the late 90's early 2000's regarding someone being prosecuted for something close to this speed in an nsx.

Due to his extensive experience with performance cars, the cars capability at speed and so on he managed to successfully argue it wasn't dangerous and just careless.

Based on this case law and how poorly defined dangerous driving is I am amazed he didn't get careless instead.