Safe Speed Forums

From the telegraph:

Speeding is not the main factor in more than 80 per cent of fatal and serious road accidents, according to Department for Transport research published yesterday.

The study, based on analysis of 36,000 crashes over four years, found "loss of control of vehicle" was the key element in 43 per cent of accidents, the biggest single cause.

Excessive speed was involved in two fifths of loss-of-control incidents, suggesting that it could have been the prime reason in no more than 18 per cent of all crashes causing death or serious injury.

The research called into question the dominance of anti-speed measures such as cameras and road humps in recent road safety policy. Speed cameras have increased five-fold since 1999 and generate an annual fines surplus for the Treasury of up to £20 million.

The study was published as the Government released figures showing that, despite the investment in cameras, road deaths rose by two per cent last year to 3,508, the highest level for six years.

After loss of control, the most common prime cause of fatal or serious injury accidents was pedestrians "entering the carriageway without due care". This was followed by drivers "failing to avoid vehicle or object", failing to give way or executing a poor turn or manoeuvre.

Excessive speed was cited in 28 per cent of fatal crashes and 18 per cent of those resulting in serious injury.

Impairment through alcohol was the eighth most frequently reported contributory factor. Drink-drive deaths rose two per cent to 560 last year, about a seventh of the total.

The RAC Foundation urged ministers to adopt a more varied approach to road safety.

"The increasing focus on speed cameras and decline in traffic police means that offences such as drug driving and careless driving could be going unchecked," said Edmund King, the foundation's executive director.

"We should have more traffic police and introduce national speed awareness courses as a means of changing driver behaviour."

Finally they have realised this after a decade of barking up the wrong tree!

Sounds good, pity they spoil it at the end... (my emphasis)


Surely we need better overall driving training, not just "speed awareness". Plus better pedestrian education, and bringing back some sort of cyclist training.


Kaz