Safe Speed Forums

If you've failed to observe another road user properly speed is largely irrelevant.

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

There's a proper balance that is necessary to save lives and facilitate transport.



If only things were so simple, we wouldn't be here. Road deaths would be falling faster than ever before.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

If you want a crude but almost realistic model of how crashes happen, imagine someone who is driving shutting their eyes.

When they shut their eyes they might well have been travelling at a safe and appropriate speed, but the following observation failure will allow crashes to take place.

Failures of observation and judgement are top of the tree for crash causes.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

weepej if you want to be perfectly safe in your car then drive it a zero speed, so it stays on your drive, where you won't get in the way of anyone else
.

Except, there was that women who was sitting in her living room when a car came through the wall having driven over her drive/garden (the one where they weren't going to prosecute the driver)... you're not safe at zero

That's nice.

Just because I don't believe in tearing round like an idiot, and also choose not to exceed the speed limit, I'm not allowed to drive?

Huh? Who said anything about "tearing round like an idiot"? Who said you're not allowed to drive?

I believe that risks and risk mitigation were being discussed.

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p.s. I am still absolutely floored by Paul's death. May 2008 be the greatest ever for SafeSpeed. His spirit lives on.

Please explain the logical steps you have followed to get from someone not believing the 'speed kills' lie, to them wanting to drive everywhere at an excessive speed.

I've got to feel sorry for weepej. He (or she?) has fallen victim to the propaganda that tells us that road safety is black or white, switched on or switched off, and that the speed limit is the switch.

Sad, simplistic, and the recourse of the hard of thinking. Also dangerous for us all.

Either that or he/she is winding some of us up.

How many accidents have you been involved in?

Also why are you invoking the stereotypical "boy racer" image when referring to anyone who exceeds a speed limit?
Care to explain at what point (in MPH please) exceeding a speed limit (in your eyes at least) becomes "tearing around like an idiot"??

The fact that you choose not to exceed a speed limit impresses no one, least of all me, ive seen some horrendous "within limits" driving, and it simply dosent follow that youre any safer than anyone else just because the numbers on your speedo and those on the signs match up.
Ask yourself a question or two: Who set the speed limits on the road youll be driving today?
Can you drive SAFELY without reference to speed limits and signs?
If you can then your argument is a broken one.
The thing that matters, (imho) the ONLY thing is whether your attitude to driving safely is correct. If it is, then itll correctly govern your driving habits, if its wrong, well, see the results for yourself, everyday;on the mobile, drink driving,putting on make up, reading papers, couldnt care less-in other words attitude and lack of professionalism.
None of that can ever be addressed via speed limits and enforcement and sticking to a politically inspired speed limit restriction.

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"Safety" Scamera Partnerships;
Profitting from death and misery since 1993.

Believe nothing- Question everything.

And that is the nub of the matter.

If you cannot drive safely with the speedo cable disconected then you cannot drive safely with it working either and probabally shouldn't be alowed to drive at all!

The message from the "Speed kills" lobby is actually rather a dismal one.

It is

1) we have given up on driver training
2) we have given up on highway engineering
3) we have given up on trying to make roads safer to reduce the liklyhood of accidents occuring
4) our sole objective is to try to mitigate the consequences of accidents that we have no intention of trying to prevent (and sometimes activly cause through bizarre traffic calming roadworks) by keeping the KE down

Poor show HMG

Poor show!

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"The road to a police state is paved with public safety legislation"

At the risk of taking this off topic, I was insensed by a telephone call from a so-called professional driver named "Ken" this morning on BBC Essex. He was so obsessed with the numerical speed (50 mph is safe for HGVs, 51 is dangerous), that words fail me.

The phone call was prompted by the carnage we had yesterday on the A12. I was not in a position unfortunately to respond. No lay-bys and, despite occasional must-dos, I am really not good in traffic on the phone despite it being (or argualbly especially because it is) hands-free.

I think he said "I bet the lorry involved in the accident was doing 51 or more when he came up to it". It had dented the barrier and showered the fast lane of the other carriageway with lght cluster lenses and glass. However, be fully assured that had he been doing 51, he'd have either ploughed straight through it (at the angle of attack he had) or bounced off it and turned over, not simply come to rest with his nose embedded in the arm-co. My guess is he'd scrubbed off all but around 25 mph by the time of impact with the barrier; I also am assuming he'd chosen the barrier (no oncoming traffic thanks to an accident further up on the other side and a blocked road) rather than biff the car in front with attendant whiplash for the occupant.

What caused it? Almost certainly lack of concentration by the lorry driver, exacerbated by rubbernecking of the several in front.

Training costs money.

Engineering costs money.

Road Safety initiatives cost money.

Vocally blaming other peoples' actions for our failure to act responsibly costs nothing and makes it look like we are doing something to solve the problem.


Absolutely!

One, I was struck front passenger side by a guy coming out at great speed from behind a tram whilst I negotiated a right turn in Australia. I wasn't moving, he certainly was, with a car full of his family.

And that wasn't an accident, it was absolute stupidity on his behalf.



You don't have to exceed the speed limit to tear around like an idiot.



Well, no, moving a one tonne vehicle is by definition not a safe thing to do.

Your words, not mine.

Dr L suggested that I shouldn't drive on tthe roads when I suggested that I slow down for hazards. His implication is that if he was stuck behind me (travelling at a suitable speed for the conditions) he would want me to get out of his way because I am travelling too slowly for his liking.

Ohh, I agree!

So why do some people drive like idiots WITH the speedo connected then?

If you disconnected their speedo would they suddenly turn into perfect drivers?

Er, driving at more than 0mph with your eyes shut is patently a VERY dangerous thing to do, any more than 0mph in that situation is NEVER a safe and appropriate speed.

Or are you suggesting the blind should be allowed to drive?

Why exactly are you quoting me out of context?

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

That's why trolls exist........