Ian has already reponded as I scanned through quickly. Post is faultless mate!
Etoile shall have to babel fish to work out what I am calling him.
Give a clue ... lentils ....
Etoile Petante wrote:
I'll finish for now and take a deep breath.
One poster (a police officer) suggested:
Q:
I could talk to you all day about safe driving at 100mph. I could show you how it's done...
Driving behaviours and attitudes have developed over the years, and the motorist/police/speed limit interaction has developed with it. It's probably one of the reasons why our roads are as safe as they are.
UQ
I'm sorry if I don't treat you with the reverence that your job entails, but there is very little "safe" driving at 100 mph whatever you may have been trained to believe.
Hmmm..... when I trained - we spent hours perfecting manoevres to ensure we knew how to handle the car and speed properly. (Am Hendon -trained - as in the good ol' days.)
Etoile Petante wrote:
I grant you that you are probably the safest and the best trained drivers on the road, but never forget the term is relative. You would do well to remember that no matter how good your training, you're not guaranteed to be accident free - 90 killed and 765 injured from police pursuits over last 5 years of which 1/3 were innocent bystanders.
This isn't intended to rub your nose in it merely to point out that if the "best trained drivers" on the road are subject to accidents, what hope is there for us mere mortals.
Hmmm. As I recall from the media reports.... girl in manchester just ran across the road into the police van.
Girl in Cambs incident was drunk .... as the other girl in a separate incident elsewhere.
Policeman (Bolton) answers a shout and 17 year runs ito his car. Lad was dodging a pal in a game of fistucuffs and just ran out - oblivious to any lights and sirens. Car was travelling at 30 mph incidentally as the three cars were approaching lights. This car was the third car.
Our patch ... biker lost in during a pursuit.
Boy racer (very much under age) lost control of stolen car...
I could go on... but about 85% of these incidents are due to such stupidity on the part of the some members of the public.
Similarly - when I investigate incidents involving Mr Ordinary Bloke - all factors such as road conditions, state of victim, speed and so on are taken into full account - just as they are if any of my team should be unlucky. (So far .. we have not had any serious incident involving our guys.)
Etoile Petante wrote:
Now here's the crux of my cause and why I think we are all complacent.
We all sit on our laurels and come out with glib comments such as "our roads are the safest in world" (they're not as a matter of fact but they are much better than average).
Accidents will never reach a zero. Considering there are 33 million cars on our roads... 3,500 is a pretty good record. Not all of these incidents involve pedestrians and not all involve another driver. Certainly the biker who ran into a tree in our nightmare patch did not involve anyone else.
But bottom line - we will always have drunken and drugged pedestrians and chancers who will get into cars and drive whilst unfit.
We will also have the unfortunate - but genuine accident as well... which is not always the result of speed - but more the result of a silly error which led to tragedy because of a chance sequence of events.
Life ain't that simple. By the way - I've spent a huge chunk of my working life investigating accidents and enforcing traffic law and promoting traffic safety....
Etoile Petante wrote:
Again this is a relative term. But hang on, we're not talking about batting averages for the 2004 county cricket season, we're talking about a "League Table of Death". I don't care how near the top of it we are in the UK, what concerns me most are the 3,500 odd deaths and the other 33,000 serious accidents that happen every year and the widows and orphans that are left in their wake. I would like to see those numbers divided by 100 in the next 10 years
I would like to see a cut in the number of deaths and injuries caused by domestic violence.
A drop in deaths due to drug abuse. A drop in drug related crime.
A drop in mindless violence which leads to a young woman being stabbed in the neck whilst strolling with her baby in a pram.
A drop in mugging, car jacking, and generally petty violence.
Then there is the health issue.. obesity and related conditions. These kill more people ultimately.
So....some things present more risks.
Etoile Petante wrote:
And if you want to think about something serious as you put your foot on the accelerator, look at the statistics for child accidents in OECD countries (that includes the UK). In terms of accidents for children, the biggest killer Motor Vehicles at 43% is almost 3x the next nearest cause drowning at 15%.
UK also holds the record for highest number of children who run off to meet some pervert they "met" in a chat room.
UK holds record for highest number of child pregnancies as well.
Perhaps UK holds record for the worst parenting in EU.
Mine answer to me if they break a rule - and they perceive me as firm but fair. The Mad Cats are regarded similarly by their children.
(In case any one's wondering where the Mad Lad is.. he's been abroad ..)
Etoile Petante wrote:
As I said on my first post, these posts were not intended to show me as "holier than thou", I just want to bring to the attention that in my opinion "speed kills". I don't deny that tailgating is just if not more dangerous than speeding, but that doesn't make speeding "more safe".
Nobody here is going to deny that speed will affect outcome. But it is not the cause of the accident. There is a sequence of chance events which lead to driver errors on both sides.
Well documented on this site and PH (and C+ via NTC) that speed is not necessarily a killer. Cousin of ours was killed when articulated truck, which had multiple defects, ploughed though a central reserve and struck him head on. The impact was just 20 mph - but it was the weight if the heavier vehicle and point of impact which killed him. Wildy
(my cousin) was hit in the rear at 80 mph. driver was taken ill - but she is still alive, and driving her car fairly speedily around Cumbria
Will not disclose speeds she gets up to in Germany either ..
However, as Ian explained... we need to get COAST into the general driver attitude. This helps choose the safest speed for the conditions. This speed is not necessarily the speed limit - it can be under or over the limit by wide marigns either side.
Usually find that all the DIS drivers who come to us ... of the ones we monitor - all apply COAST and all appear to drive according to speed limit to 10% margin on urban roads.
Etoile Petante wrote:
I've been caught speeding twice and both times I deserved my points. What's changed in me, well its nothing altrusitic, in fact the reason's more selfish - I have 2 young children and the one thing that keeps me awake at night is not paedophiles or deadly diseases but the simple statistic that if my child's life is to be taken from me, the highest probability is that it will be taken by motorist.
I have a large family. A s far as I am concerned - I have a responsibility to teach them road sense. This means I do not let them play out on the road way and ensure there is adequate supervision unitl I judge them to be capable of independence.
In the car ... they are belted up properly - and if they misbehave and distract - then car is stopped at first safe opportunity and riot act is read to them.
My driving style? I COAST it. After a while - it's second nature. I remember most drives for at least one half hour or longer after driving it.
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Signal can be lost in some areas - especially where I live and where my in-laws live in Swiss Alps.
