Safe Speed Forums

"As regards the statistics to which you refer, our report clearly states the
accident causation relating to speed according to Government data - if the
stats were misreported in the piece you saw I can only apologise for that.
It would be great if you could let me know the source of your data for
future reference."

"As usual, the government are lying through their teeth.

I would draw your attention to the findings of DFT Road Safety Research
Report No. 43. which seems to suggest excessive speed and speeding account
for significantly less than 1/3rd of accidents:

The top 7 contributory factors in over 60,000 accidents is reported as:

1 Inattention: 25.8%
2 Failure to judge other person's path or speed: 22.6%
3 Looked but did not see: 19.7%
4 Behaviour: careless/thoughtless/reckless: 18.4%
5 Failed to look: 16.3%
6 Lack of judgement of own path: 13.7%
7 Excessive speed: 12.5%

There are plenty of other correct reports around such as:
The Transport Research Laboratory was commissioned to investigate a new type
of form for police officers to report on road traffic accidents they attend.
This form was designed to produce more accurate data on causal factors.

The results of this investigation, published in report TRL323, showed that
excess speed was a factor (but not necessarily the only factor) in 7.3% of
accidents.

The government is not really interested in improving road safety, it is only
interested in making life hell for drivers, and literally force them onto
public transport by taking away their driving licences, and extorting as
much money from them as possible into the bargain.

Your researchers couild have discovered this information quite easily,
(there are several good websites) and should be spoken to very sternly, for
allowing this sort of biased rubbish to be published as fact! It is very
disappointing for an organisation that purports to be the champion of
motorists to perpetrate lies, without checking up on them first."

The lady that contacted me is Rebecca Bell ( RBell@rac.co.uk )

She offered me a full copy of their RAC Report on Motoring, and said that she has had long and useful discussions with Paul Smith. From that I would assume she is already aware of the views on Safespeed.

Robert