Quote:
Originally Posted by driveway
In this you are both right and wrong.
You are right because it has been demonstrated in a number of studies that there is no correlation between speed and frequency of accidents. You are just as likely to have an accident at 30kph as you are at 80 or 120.
However, what has also been conclusively demonstrated (and is, I think, self-evident) is that there is a direct correlation between speed and severity of accidents. An accident taking place at 80kph is going to be several orders of magnitude more severe than one taking place at 30 and several orders less severe than one taking place at 120.
So, while you are not making it more or less likely that you will be in an accident if you choose to speed, you are making it vastly more certain that you, or someone else, will be killed should one occur.
Therefore, depending on which semantic meaning you choose to take, you are both right and very wrong about speed not killing.
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I agree with this post almost 100% but what bothers me is that it is not the approach or stance taken by legislation/law enforcement. Their mantra is and has always been "Speed Kills", disguising traffic laws (namely speeding violations) as existing solely for public safety.
The problem here is you have more and more accidents caused directly by driver inattentiveness, most relevant right now is the cell phone/texting issue. Yes, speed had an effect in these accidents (ANY speed will), but if you eliminate the cause, you WILL eliminate the effect. There is a blitzkreig campaign against speeding (which is a problem only after an accident is caused) but virtually nothing addressing the CAUSE of these accidents.
Another issue is vehicle weight. For the most part, accident severity is analogous to the kinetic energy of the bodies (vehicles) involved. The kinetic energy is equal to 0.5*(mass)*(speed)^2.
While an increase in speed will have the most effect, vehicle weight plays a large role in accident severity. Yet speed limits are constant across the board for every vehicle (at least here they are). What I gather from this is either:
a) The limit is safe for most passenger car/trucks on the road. This means it is completely unsafe for heavy vehicles, like semi trucks hauling loads and the current legislation has intentionally exposed the entire public to danger.
b) The limit is safe for the heavier vehicles on the road. This means the rest (huge majority) of us have to travel much slower than we are safely capable of, increasing our travel time. (This is not a trivial point, if it was, the limit would be 20kph everywhere and no one would ever get hurt in a car accident.) We also get fined for traveling above this speed, not because it's unsafe, but because it's an arbitrary, easily enforced setpoint.
None of this is address or discussed by legislators because eventually one of two questions would have to be asked:
1) Has the Government knowingly exposed the majority of public road users to danger by allowing heavy vehicles to exceed safe speeds?
2) Has the Government been collecting the money of it's citizens in the form of speeding fines under the guise of enhancing public safety, where in reality they knew the public was not in reasonable danger?
I firmly believe that b) is the case and that 2) is the question that should be asked. Sadly, I know it will never happen, I'm just sick of seeing people, myself included, crucified for speeding.