Category: speed

About One in Three of All Road Deaths Involve Speeding

Despite the attached article and additional images referring specifically to European countries, the same ‘speed’ scenario and dangers undeniably apply in the USA and Canada, too.

Infographic showing the dangers of excess speed.
A 2017 WHO infographic from Europe which is universal in its applicability in all developed nations.

Did you know that, on average, 1 in 3 deaths on roads in high-income countries are due to speed?  (More info.)

The speeds shown in the infographic, above — 30, 50 and 80 — refer to kilometres per hour (km/h) and are equivalent to 17, 31 and 50mph.

Useful Websites in Relation to Speed, Speeding and Fast Driving

This Speed and Speeding page is the first of the resource pages we hope and plan to to develop for our readers’ interest, and each will simply be amended as new information comes available so please check back from time to time to see what’s been added.

The Dangers of Teen Speeding, from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute

Photograph of a Volkswagen car in the left lane on an Interstate highway, that is about to cut in front of our own vehicle far too quickly. The mass of spray thrown up will hit our windscreen in moments.
The bad driver in the white Volkswagen is already far too close behind the motorcycle, especially given the very wet road, and is now in a rush to get into the right-hand lane, ahead of us, in order to speed past the motorcycle on the wrong side. Our driver knew enough to get the wipers on full speed before our windscreen was hit by all the spray coming up from the back wheels of the VW. Copyright image.

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Speed… Is it Really a Major Safety Issue or Do the ‘Experts’ Exaggerate?

One of the most inflammatory and divisive topics in road or highway safety is that of speed in relation to safety.

The first question that has to be addressed is what exactly do we mean in this context by the word “speed”?  It is very important not to fall into the trap of thinking it only relates to breaking the posted speed limits, even though that is still a serious issue (see below).

A panned photo of a car travelling at speed on a leafy rural road.
Breaking the posted speed limit often contributes to serious or fatal crashes.  However, if there are problems on the road, then it is easy to do a potentially dangerous speed even within the posted limit. This is called driving at an inappropriate speed for the circumstances, and it is particularly common — and deadly — on rural roads. (Copyright image.)

Continue reading “Speed… Is it Really a Major Safety Issue or Do the ‘Experts’ Exaggerate?”