Richard Bates <
[email protected]> wrote in message news:<
[email protected]>...
>
> The Government and official bodies such as the TRL and DTLR have put
> it about that some 30% of road accidents are attributable to
> "excessive speed". That turns out to be a misrepresentation by a
> factor of up to 10...
Oh, dear, yet more misrepresentation of the use of Supplementary stats
19 forms. For one thing the guidance for these forms suggests that
'excessive speed' usually means ONLY 'excessive speed for the
conditions that is ALSO above the legal speed limit, not excessive
speed for the conditions that is otherwise 'legal'. This has caused
much confusion and in a recent review of these forms the DfT is
considering having a separate category for excessive speed for the
conditions that is above and that which is below the legal limit.
Also, excessive speed is not even listed as the main or precipitating
cause of a crash, so it is hardly surprising that the Stats 19 forms
don't show speed as a major factor. This was done quite deliberately
as when the use of these forms was standardised a few years back it
was accepted that speed played a intimate role in the causal chain of
events leading to most crashes and given this what was needed was a
better understanding of just how the inappropriate use of speed led to
a crash in a given situation. In any case the list of factors includes
items such as 'losing control' which only a fool would argue have
nothing to do with driving at excessive speed, however they might be
recorded.
Also, and this is very important, the '7%' figures relate to all
crashes. A closer examination of the current figures, which downplay
the role of speed in many ways, nontheless still show that excessive
speed plays a central role in the causation of around 30% of fatal
crashes. This is exactly what we would expect. Attempting to argue
that figures which include low speed parking shunts and so on somehow
show that high speeds have nothing to do with the likelihood of a
serious or fatal crash occurring seems like nothing more than a
calculated deceit...