Who said "Speed Kills"??

the same thing happens all around the world
when they put in speed cameras & lower speed limits
the death toll rises but no one seems to learn!!

We spent last November driving through many countries in Europe, Most of the people drive like crazy, even in countries that have similar speed limits to us. Most drive well over the limits, just slowing for the fixed cameras, just like a game. On our way home, we concluded that speed does NOT kill. We did not see an accident or mishap in 10,000ks.. Its lack of judgement of drivers and their general lack of skill in a sticky situation that kills. Michael

I have found as some one else said on here the other day you seem to daydream more when taking it REAL easy then when you are doing the speed limits you seem to be, should I say more alert due to the extra speed. Now before anyone jumps Im not saying that we should be speeding. Look at the stats in Europe, outobahns (spelling) etc where they have big speed limits. Yes when they have big accidents it normally envolves alot more vehicles but in general there stats say it all. Problem here is you have (some) P platers who think they have been driving for years and are so experianced they think they know how to handle any situation at any speed, you have some people who travel into country area's have never driven country roads before who hoot along well over the speed limits then come unstuck due to soft shoulders on the road edges, ruts, etc and DONT slow down. Even when we went through the NT years back we still only sat on about 110/120 heaps quick enough and we had people passing us like we were standing still. Im not saying I never speed or a goody goody and dont break the law. Also I think these days that newer vehicles are so quit and most can easily do well above the speed limit that the new vehicles give a lot of people a false sense of security with abs, traction control, airbags,stability control, etc that they think it wont happen to me. Peter Brock for example !!!! brillant driver knew the road but still unfortunately come to an end. Regards steve M

Signman
Yep, you can make bare statistics say anything you want.

tessa

A few years back there was a study paid for by the then State Government on road fatalities. It was conducted by a well regarded European company.

The basis of their finding was to have safety corridors between the sealed surface and the property lines (country areas and to a lesser extent urban areas) with no structure or obstacles within a set distance. For memory it was a significant distance of (guessing) 20-25 metres.

If you look at most fatals it involves a vehicle colliding with a solid object - be it road signs, trees, fences etc. The Government looked into it briefly and I can only guess that the cost would have scared them off. The cost of relocating ALL power poles only, let alone convincing the greens to cut trees down along the highways would have seen their political demise.

Bottom line is it costs a lot of money to reduce the road toll - why not just chase revenue from speeding motorists?

To surmise - it's not speeding, or dare I say dangerous driving, that kills - it is the sudden impact with a fixed object (not including head ons obviously).


Tim

There is absolutely no way that you can draw any correlation between the introduction of speed restrictions in NT and the number of fatal road accidents. The decline in other states may (MAY) be as a result of less vehicles travelling on the roads, greater Police presence, increased enforcement of road traffic laws including drink and drug driving etc. I challenge you to substantiate your inference and prove that a reduction in speed limits in NT has contributed to an increase in fatal accidents.

Dead is dead HOWEVER I would much rather be in a vehicle that looses control at 100 km/ph than anything much greater than that thank you. In fact I prefer not to be in any vehicle that looses control particularly on a road.

Unfortunately many of those that choose to drive at high speeds simply don't have the necessary skills or even experience. Just have a look at the number of high speed chases (every night in most cities) involving Police. Most end in for the offenders. A combination of excessive speed, inexperience, to judge and recognise danger or dangerous situations and usually a complete lack of fear and responsibility.

No one will ever convince me that it is safe for vehicles to travel along the same road at vastly differing (read high speed) speeds. There are just too many uncontrollable and unforeseen factors at play. For example, road conditions, driver inexperience, wandering wildlife, grazing stock, dust, rain, fog etc are likely causes of collisions and so often deaths on our roads.

In NT to compare road deaths with any other state is ridiculous as the volume of traffic is so vastly different. Any death on the road anywhere as the result of vehicle collision is one death too many. Any legislation that restricts drivers from speeding or other dangerous actions is one means of controlling irresponsible driver behaviour and hopefully reducing the carnage occurring regularly on our roads.

The basic principles applying to road safety are uniformity and the control of speed, with road rules, vehicle road worthiness, driver attitude and well designed and maintained roads. There would not (NOT) be one Govt. brave enough to stand up and tell it's constituents that by increasing speed limits on the roads and allowing drivers to act with complete indifference and consideration of others will reduce road deaths and other trauma.
Try telling it to the parents, spouses, children of those that have lost loved ones as the result of poor choices made by so many irresponsible and arrogant drivers who have caused the death of innocent parties by their unforgivably bad driving. Why not try fronting up at the ED of any major metropolitan hospital and just experiencing the pain and anguish, loss and suffering of Nurses, Doctors, family and friends of those victims fighting for life and so often loosing that fight.

You are entitled to an opinion. To any opinion whatsoever, however if you are going to make such confronting statements in relation to a subject that has and will continue to impact on so many families throughout or country, then you could at least substantiate your claims with some FACTS. Cheap headlines and throw-away statements or comments do nothing to add to the values of human life so often lost on our roads.

What amazes me is whan i got my license in 1973, there were signs everywhere that were derestricted zones(a sign with a circle and a line crossing the circle from memory) . Basically you could do any speed you like over the NSW state limit of 60 mph, as long as you could prove you were driving safely if something went wrong or you were pulled up by police. Over the years i have seen the same places, limits come down to as low as 60 kph.
In those days, old 66 Falcons and HR holder were still plentiful and the handling and stopping was pathetic.. So whats happened, we have much safer cars, seat belts, ABS, vehicle stability and better tyres and we have very slow speed limits compared to years ago.
I just dont get it.. A few months ago, heading south and taking the off ramp for Mittagong exit from the Hume Horrorway, i find the sign changed from 100 down to 80kph, I have been travelling that off ramp for the last 12 years and have never seen an accident so what is the thinking behind all of this? Are we being asked to cater for the lowest common denominator on the road?? Michael

"There's no such thing as a dangerous road..........if you're going SLOW enough" Said to me by my grandfather 30+ years ago when I first got my licence. He worked on construction of most of Tassie's original Midlands Highway.Advice never forgotten.

Speeding really gets a bad rap, it is never really the problem. the problem is almost always the sudden stop after....

Nick

haha - a redneck speeders post. Good bait signman.

Look at em all come out of the woodwork and try and justify their speeding - what a crack up!!!

I thought "Friday Funnies" were to be resticted to one thread,
surely this post & most of the answers is meant to be a joke, if not it is hard to believe that so many morons could gather in one place.

In Victoria, even with huge increases in vehicles on the road, the road toll continues to fall, it wasn't many years ago that we had well over 1000 fatalities in a single year, now it is around 300 ...... WHY??

I did read somewhere that the gov misleads people in speeding stats. Example, if a car crashes and they look at the weather and its raining or dark, the car may have crashed at 60kph in a 60 zone, or it may have crashed at 50kph in a 60 zone, but if someone decides that 60 or 50 was to fast, the crash is put down into the stats as speeding. This is a lie to the people if its true.

I also read the govs in the past who have started wars, started with changing names for things to suit their own purposes. Eg the vic gov does not call them speed cameras, they renamed them safety cameras even though the evidence that they are actually safety cameras is not there. This is also misleading. I am not actually saying our gov wants to start a war!! I am only observing as others have that this practice of deception is not a good one and I for one do not support it.

Here are some extensive and real fact and figures for those prepared to plough through them rather than just accepting simple slogans,
speed may not be the demon some suggest:

Road Casualties, Great Britain: 2006

Mike Harding

Speed kills! Well if you were doing 1 kph instead of 100 kph the likelihood of death from an incident would be less. Perhaps the likelihood of an incident occurring in a given situation increases as speed increases above a certain threshold. And as the amount of energy dissipated in an incident increases with the square of the speed, going faster leads to more damaging incidents. So yes - Speed does kill.

But wait. If speed kills how come planes can barrel down the runway at 300 kph in relative safety? And how come there are very few fatalities on the racetracks?

It is far more complex than 'Speed Kills'. Its a slogan picked up by brainless politicians, bureaucrats and police who sponge off motorists for the revenue that pays them.

The dead, injured and bereaved deserve a far more honest analysis of road safety than we currently get.

Lack of judgement kills!!!!

On Wednesday, going home, I stopped at the lights on Nerang-Broadbeach Road at the Ross St intersection. I picked the inside lane which left me at the front next to a Holden Rodeo Ute on my right with two more lanes further across. I knew that my lane would run out in 400 metres so when the lights went green I was away quickly and eventually moved right using the merge lines well in front of the Rodeo. A quick glance in my side mirror had told me I was well ahead of the Rodeo. I also noticed in my mirrors that as he took off his rear end was sliding around on the greasy surface.

A few seconds later I again used my side mirror to see this guy barrelling up on my rear at a far faster speed than I was travelling (80 kph - the limit) and thought he was going to rear end me. Within two metres of my bumper he pulled out to pass, lost total control, skidded left, right, hit the median strip, crossed it, rolled twice and hit the oncoming lane from a height of two metres taking out the back of a Honda CVR.

The results can be viewed inside the Thursday edition of the Gold Coast Bulletin. He's in hospital but hopefully OK. He could have been killed and so could have drivers in the west bound lane who don't expect to see a vehicle barrell rolling towards them from the east bound lane.

The bottom line is that as he took off from the lights he already had traction problems but he continued on regardless and made what could have been a fatal mistake. I am just perplexed that someone could drive like this unless they were bleep or on drugs or both.

What I'm saying is it isn't speed that kills but poor judgement and poor driving skills. You've got a lot of people around who think that they are good drivers who aren't even close to it and as we all know, familiarity breeds contempt.

Hmmmm road safety hey, when i was young and silly and a new license holder i lost many mates (and mates of mates, if ya know what i mean) , seriously i cant even remember how many and honestly i think i should have been amongst the dead but somehow i survived, in my opinion now all learners should be made to do a defensive driveing course and made to watch a graphic movie on road accidents, to me the license laws they have in QLD at the moment are nothing more than a waste of time for everyone.

The governments use speed as an excuse to make people believe what they are doing is right.

When they use the words "speed was a contributing factor in the accident" or "speeding" or "excessive speed" it makes people think that these people were breaking the law.

Take for example if there was a accident in a 60Kph zone, the words SPEED, SPEEDING and EXCESSIVE SPEED would mean...

SPEED - A vehicle that is traveling between 0 Kph and 60 Kph in a 60 Kph zone.

SPEEDING - A vehicle that is traveling between 0 Kph and 60 Kph in a 60 Kph zone but the conditions are classed as dangerous whereby you can not travel safely at 60 Kph.

EXCESSIVE SPEED - A vehicle traveling over 60 Kph in a 60 Kph zone.

It's a play on words.

Regards Richard

A mate 's brother who was a highway patrolman said to me once that "speed doesn't kill, idiocy does" and he wasn't happy with the side of his job that had to book people driving very safe cars on safe roads in a very safe manner.

I've always put the scenario to people about a person on "green P's" (100kmh limit in nsw) driving a 25 year old rustbucket with barely legal tyres, clapped out suspension, dodgy brakes etc along the Bell's Line of Road (or any piece of fast twisting road) at night in a rainstorm. Compare that to a driver with 30-40 years experience (perhaps 50000km per year?), maybe with some club level racing/rallying under his belt, driving a late model Merc?BMW etc with excellent tyres, ABS and the like and he is sitting on 120kmh on a 110kmh freeway in broad daylight, not a cloud in the sky.

q1) who is at the biggest risk of causing an accident?
q2) who is the person "speeding" and therefore deserves to cop a fine and lose points?

Gday,
I was talking to a mate (NT Snr Sargent, Accident investigator and member of the road safety council) about the speed limit before it all changed.
He agreed a speed limit will do nothing!
The idiots who drive at 200km will do it weather there is a speed limit or not and there has always been a law about driveing with undue care.
And as far as stats go...they can make them say whatever they want them to.
We looked at the stats for that year, what was classed by the government pushing the speed limit issue as speed related was a crock.
If you deducted the accidents involving grog, no seatbelts and under 130km there was bugger all.

Cheers

Signman


In the NT due to the low population there is a small number of deaths in comparison to the states and therefore it does not take a large number of death to cause an increase in the statistics.

A statistic which is more accurate is the number of serious injury accidents.

For information the number of fatal accident Australia wide was reduced with the introduction of RBT.

It was also reduced with the introduction of speed cameras.


Tjilpi