Speed is the biggest single contributory factor in road crashes, inflicting hundreds of thousands of casualties every year. The relationship between speed and road crashes is straightforward: as speeds go up, the likelihood of crashes goes up, for any given set of road conditions. The reason is simple: increased vehicle speeds are not accompanied by increased thinking and reacting speeds. Because of this the distance needed for responding and braking increases with speed...
And as speeds go up, the severity of crashes goes up. Inappropriate speed choice - driving too fast for the conditions - is the major factor in up to a half of road crashes and contributes to many more.
Speed reductions cut casualties. The likelihood of crashes decreases as speeds are reduced. Although the relationship varies according to road conditions and average speeds, there is an association between speed reduction and crash reduction - every 1 mph reduction in speed reduction in crashes is accompanied by an average 5% decrease in crashes and a 7% decrease in fatalities.
A 10% drop in speeds resulted in a 40% drop in fatalities and serious injuries after speed cameras were introduced in West London.
Where 20 mph zones have been introduced and enforced, all casualties have fallen by around 60%
So there it is. Speed kills. And so surely this warrants added speed cameras along the M4 attempting to catch people fragrantly breaking the law.
Last edited by vecvechookattack; 13th Apr 2005 at 07:01.