>-----Original Message----- >From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu] >Sent: 26 January 2005 11:47 >To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public. >Subject: Re: [OT] Police 'LADAR'? > > >>>As I ride the bus back >>>and forth to work every day, there's an accident several >times a week >>>where I believe speeding contributed to a large extent. > >> You might feel it's related to speeding as do many people who >> haven't >> done any research on the issue, but the vast majority of accidents >> are >> not caused by speeding but simply inattention. > >Lets try an engineering reality check here. >AOTBE = = All other things being equal: > >AOTBE. do "speeding cars" (SC) risk not stopping when a non speeding >car (NSC) would have stopped? >Obviously , yes. > >AOTBE, do speeding cars have a higher energy at impact and do more >damage than NSC. >Obviously yes. > >AOTBE, are drivers of SC liable to be more attentive? >Not so clear, but my general observation is that, while people who >drive cars above speed limits in town or country will often enough >proclaim their better capability, fancier safer car, greater attention >etc, they are not discernibly better in these respects overall than >Joe average and may well be worse. >(These are the people who will tell you with a straight face, or even >with insistence, that they use radar detectors because they make their >driving safer). > >I conclude (on the basis of my vastly scientific one observer, decades >long research project [ :-) ] ) that a SC driver is not liable to be >more attentive and so is liable to both have more accidents and have >worse outcomes when they occur. Even if the accident rate was >identical the damage and death rate would be substantially greater >AOTBE. If the damage and death rate were not overall greater then the >accident rate would need to drop by more than the square of the >relative mean speeds. The Tui's beer ads here have a comment to make >on that. Yeah, Right! This is precisely what I mean. On the face of it, speeding would appear to be a fundamental accident cause, but if you actually do the research, it isn't. Even the Department of Transports own figures show that excessive speed is a minor causation factor of accidents (from http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_rdsafety/documents/page/dft_rd safety_028073.pdf) * Inattention: 25.8% * Failure to judge other person's path or speed: 22.6% * Looked but did not see: 19.7% * Behaviour: careless/thoughtless/reckless: 18.4% * Failed to look: 16.3% * Lack of judgement of own path: 13.7% * Excessive speed: 12.5% A statement from the Chief Constable of Durham: Mr Garvin explained: "I actually believe in casualty reduction and trying to make the roads safer but, having looked at the accident statistics in this area, we find that if you break down the 1,900 collisions we have each year only three per cent involve cars that are exceeding the speed limit. Just 60 accidents per year involve vehicles exceeding the speed limit. "You then need to look at causes of these 60 accidents. Speed may be a factor in the background but the actual cause of the accident invariably is drink-driving or drug-driving. Drug-taking is becoming more of a problem. In 40 per cent of fatal road accidents in this area one or more of the people involved have drugs in their system." Many accidents were caused by fatigue, although one of the most common causes of crashes was the failure of drivers to watch out for oncoming vehicles when turning right. "The cause of accidents is clearly something different than exceeding the speed limit and we ought to be looking at those other factors," Mr Garvin said. This is why I see red when people blithy state that "speed kills". Speed does not kill any more than weight, area or any other vector quantity does. I will agree that excessive speed is liable to both increase the chance of an accident and the severity of one. However, the fact that speed in excess of a posted limit is a miniscule causation factor of accidents does not justify the ridiculous focus on speed that our police forces have. The meteoric rise of speeding tickets issued in the last few years due to autmoated speed enforcment, coupled with an INCREASING road death rate would seem to imply that speed enforcement is helping only to create a revenue stream. Obviously I am talking about the UK situation, but I suspect other countries are not too different. Regards Mike ======================================================================= This e-mail is intended for the person it is addressed to only. The information contained in it may be confidential and/or protected by law. If you are not the intended recipient of this message, you must not make any use of this information, or copy or show it to any person. Please contact us immediately to tell us that you have received this e-mail, and return the original to us. 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