WE''RE STILL SPEEDING
07 April 2006 - Safe Speed

Department for Transport (DfT) figures published yesterday [1] reveal that morethan half of us are still speeding in free flowing conditions on most roadtypes.

With the proportion of vehicles speeding increasing on some road types the dream that cameras would change our speeding behaviour is lying in tatters.

[Safe Speed will publish a fuller analysis of the figures later]

Consider the following:

Proportion of drivers drunk: ~2%
Proportion of crashes involving drink: ~25%

Proportion of drivers speeding: ~50%
Proportion of crashes involving speeding: under 5% [2]

Drink, as you would expect, is massively over represented in the crash stats, by very marked contrast, speeding is massively underrepresented in the crash stats.

Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign (www.safespeed.org.uk) said: ''More than half of us are still speeding on most road types, yet various DfT figures released over the last 3 years have shown that ''excessive speed'' is recorded as a contributory factor in only 11% or 12% of all injury accidents. I would like to hear the DfT explain why speeding is far more commonplace than speed related crashes. This is in very marked contrast to drunk driving, where around 2% of drivers are thought to be drunk, yet around 25% of crashes involve drink.''

''If road safety policy was correct the incidence of excessive speed crashes should be reducing, but it is not.'' [3]

''The vast majority of responsible motorists speed because they are correctly - and precisely - adjusting their speed to suit the road conditions. They do so in complete safety. In fact this behaviour - setting a safe and appropriate speed according to the conditions - is a cornerstone of road safety. Attempting to replace this vital behaviour with mere legal compliance is a deadly mistake.''

www.safespeed.org.uk

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