Safe Speed Forums

thanks

Are you asking about speed as a contributory factor in crashes in UK?

But don't believe anyone here or elsewhere as many seem to have a political agenda. The best thing to do is find out for yourself. It would take much effort but here's a starting point, in fact it's pretty much all we have that tells us why crashes happen:

http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/statistics/da ... ritain2006

Look on the RHS and download "Article 4 - Contributory factor statistics (Excel 229 kb)"

There you will find the contributory factors in crashes in UK for 2006 as reported by the Police on the official government website.
With regards to speed the bits you probably want are:

"Exceeding speed limit" : 14% of fatals, 7% of serious
"Travelling too fast for conditions" : 18% of fatals, 13% of serious

Note that the above "Exceeding speed limit" figure includes all the crashes where the officer believes any vehicle was "Exceeding speed limit" and also where any vehicle was POSSIBLY "Exceeding speed limit". In other words these are MAXIMUM figures.

Note also "Travelling too fast for conditions" is defined as being WITHIN the speed limit.

But again, don't believe anyone. The official DfT site does explain this elsewhere.

Is that of use?
And may I ask why you want to know?

_________________
The world runs on oil, period. No other substance can compete when it comes to energy density, flexibility, ease of handling, ease of transportation. If oil didn’t exist we would have to invent it.”

56 years after it was decided it was needed, the Bedford Bypass is nearing completion. The last single carriageway length of it.We have the most photogenic mayor though, always being photographed doing nothing

indeed I am
(but infact Im from israel and happened to bump with this site)


yes its helpful
well in my opinion speed is indeed a contributory factor in car accidents.
some people say that because car speed is easy to measure by police vs other traffic violations like "not obeying traffic signals", it turns out that the police are too pedantic about speed violations vs other traffic violations.

so I would like to know how other organisations see the speed issue. for example academy researchers and other organisations which are not attached to the police. in israel there is non-profit organization called "green light" wich was founded by a father that his son was killed in a car crash. this organisation helps the traffic-police-department in volunteering and other activities.
I wonder what is "green light" view about high speed. maybe I will email them a qeustion on that.
have a nice day in UK and good luck with chelsy foot ball team(we watch them very closely in israel)

Be sure to distinguish between 'main factor' and 'contributory factors' as well.

In UK statistics 'exceeding the limit' + 'too fast for the conditions' combined are contributory factors in ~ 30% of accidents, leading to the propaganda lie that "30% of accidents are caused by speed".

Exceeding the speed limit is main factor in only 4% of accidents in UK.

Poor driving is a bigger one though. One point of view is that speed does not cause very many accidents but can contribute towards the severity.



Given the thinking behind organisations in this country such as "Brake" which were set up for similar reasons I was initially minded to dismiss this. Green Light or "Or Yarok" may be far less emotionally driven however, take a look at this pdf

http://www.oryarok.org.il/webfiles/audio_files/66_Lotanformat.pdf

they look to be far more interested in education than dogma.

Edit - Nottingham Uni reference to an Or Yarok study on graduated licenses http://www.psychology.nottingham.ac.uk/IAAPdiv13/ICTTP2004papers2/Training/Leshem.pdf

_________________
Driving fast is for a particular time and place, I can do it I just only do it occasionally because I am a gentleman.
- James May

Well this is absolutely true because without "speed" crashes cannot occur. In that sense ALL car accidents have speed as a contributory factor.

Therefore the term "speed" becomes meaningless. What we must determine is what "type" of speed.

The only "type of speed" that can be easily measured is "Exceeding speed limit" and we can see that at least 86% (the vast majority) of fatal crashes (the big crashes) have got NOTHING to do with exceeding the speed limit.

And about 95% of all injury crashes have got nothing to do with exceeding the speed limit either.

And we must also know that MOST drivers/riders exceed the speed limit (See speed surveys on DfT and many SCP sites).

If the majority of drivers/riders exceed the speed limit, yet the vast majority of crashes occur WITHIN the speed limit, we must conclude that "exceeding the speed limit" is "of little consequence" to road safety, perhaps even "insignificant" in the overall scheme of things.

Perhaps that's why www.safespeed.org.uk exists?

No, No, No: speed cameras can stop the 5% being killed, which makes them all worthwhile..If every speed camera stopped one person being killed (as they are supposed to do) then we have no deaths on the roads. Indeed, we may have people suddenly springing into existence.
Even totally stopping every car on the road would make little difference, since the very dramatic growth in pubic transport would lead to many more people being killed by buses/taxis etc. More than are already killed, that is.

_________________
The world runs on oil, period. No other substance can compete when it comes to energy density, flexibility, ease of handling, ease of transportation. If oil didn’t exist we would have to invent it.”

56 years after it was decided it was needed, the Bedford Bypass is nearing completion. The last single carriageway length of it.We have the most photogenic mayor though, always being photographed doing nothing