to presume NO ONE speeds ever on mn

[Jedward]

or at least admits to it.

The impact of speeding:

20 mph - in a car accident involving a pedestrian at this speed there is a one in 40 chance the pedestrian will be killed.

30 mph - in a car accident involving a pedestrian at this speed there is a one in five chance the pedestrian will be killed.

35 mph - in a car accident involving a pedestrian at this speed there is a one in two chance the pedestrian will be killed.

40 mph - in a car accident involving a pedestrian at this speed there is a nine in ten chance the pedestrian will be killed.

Most car accidents resulting in a fatality happen on A and B roads.

If you don't know the speed limit of the road you are on, the clues are there:

If there are street lamps, the speed limit is 30mph, unless there are reminders.

If there are no street lamps, the speed limit is the national speed limit, unless there are reminders (60mph on a single carriageway or 70mph on a dual carriageway or motorway).

Any other speed limit (20, 40 or 50mph) will have regular signs reminding you what it is.

I only know all of this as I was recently caught doing 35mph in a 30mph zone and did a speed awareness course. It has worked on me!

I don't speed im built up areas because when I was younger I actually hit someone. It wasn't my fault, a stupid pissed up lad ran in front of me. It was a 40 mph road but luckily I had stopped at a red light which just turned green so I was only doing about 20 mph at most.

Actually seeing someone roll up your bonnet and smash your window screen and then sprawl arcoss the floor not moving is the scariest thing ever. The lads mates were so drunk they couldn't even run to the phone box for an ambulance. Just after I called the ambulance a police car stopped and helped.

The police were great, I got breathalised (and was then asked if I'd like to keep the tube as a memento!) but I hadn't been drinking and they agreed it wasn't my fault and the bloke got taken away in an ambulance. They think it was the amount he had drank that stopped any real damage. A taxi driver coming the other way had only just missed him too.

It was horrible going through that when your not at fault never mind if I had been speeding. I don't think the police would have been so nice to me if I had.

I used to think speed limits were like yellow lines, not applicable on Sundays or between the hours of 6pm and 8am

built up areas and single carriageway roads (even main 60mph roads) I stick to

I'm not so good on the dual carriageways or motorways though

i hate driving on country roads, i find them terrifying. they should bring the speed limit down, imo. it's a highly specious argument to say that people should drive beyond a point where they feel they can drive safely just to avoid frustrating some local cunt in a 4x4 who wants to go at 60 and above. there was something on the telly about the amount of accidents that would be prevented if they changed it to fifty, it was pretty convincing.

yeah aitch, whenever we visit the inlaws (in true cuntryside) I'm always amazed at how shite the roads are - not lit, curvy and really quite dangerous if you don't know them. And you try and drive safely and you're always tailgated by some local moron who knows every bend and can do them at 60.

Almost makes me positively pleased to be back in gridlock central! at least the roads are all lit round here!

other thing that surprises me is how much of the M-ways aren't lit once you leave London. I mean SURELY we can afford to light up main motorways?

I don't "get" speeding... Never had a good enough reason to break a speed limit, even if i'm running late, i'd rather be 15 minutes late for work than speed.

And also, i have my own little theory that says that you are most likely to get annoyed by drivers that are slower than you, so if you do speed, most of them WILL be slower, so you'll have more reasons to get annoyed. So if you drive up to speed limit, but don't break it, you'll have a more chilled out journey

The above message was sponsored by the word "so"...

i never knowingly speed, but for example i was overtaking a lorry on the m'way the other day and passed a camera at a fair clip. no flash, though, so fingers crossed. on that note, however, i did notice that the lorry, now behind me, ground to a halt and nearly caused an accident with another overtaking car when it saw the camera. ho hum.

Fox, the M25 goes through my parents' farm. Several years ago it was decided it would be lit. You would not believe the amount of local residents who complained vociferously about this - citing light pollution, blah blah blah. As my mother pointed out to them, she was hardly going to be looking out of her window all night at a view she no longer has, so the m/way being lit made no difference to her!

I consider myself to be a confident and competent driver - 20+ years since I passed my test, I used to regularly drive 40k miles + per year for work, I had to do a regular 'defensive driving' course at work as my company cars were always high insurance groups, I drove in Italy for several years when I lived there, etc., but it is only now that I truly realise just how fatal excess speed can be. Lesson well and truly learned.

it is amazing, isn't it, that the national speed limit on a nice straight, well-maintained motorway is only ten miles more than country roads. and round here they drop that limit toute de suite in adverse conditions, using the overhead signage. no such facility in the cuntry.

I know several people who drive really slowly and yet are dangerous drivers because they have no awareness of what is going on around them. I know others who break the limit on occassion (empty motorway in the middle of the night for example), but who drive well below the speed limit when the situation dictates.

Within reason, it is not speed itself which is dangerous, but drivers who do not drive appropriately for the situation they are in e.g. it is legal for someone to drive 60 mph on the motorway, but not safe if there is thick fog/heavy rain/they are driving 2 inches from the bumper of the car behind.

I don't mind speeding per se. It is aggressive driving I really hate and speed cameras don't pick that up.

I don't speed - I drive at a sensible rate for the conditions. However, I am quite often over the "speed limit" because the speed limits are set on the braking distances of 1930s cars and I drive a 2002 car.
On the way to work I drive through a section of well-lit, straight dual carriageway which has a 30 limit - what's that all about? (apart from revenue collection?)
FWIW I haven't had an accident that was my fault for about 20 years and have never had any points.

koh, surely you know people who are dangerous because they have no awareness of what's going on around them? making them drive faster would not make them safer.

and it's not a "speed limit", fembear, it's a speed limit. stay lucky.

Please stop making excuses 'only a few miles over'. Its a speed limit not a speed target. drive a few miles under it if necessary. especially in residential areas.

I lost my boyfriend because someone thought that getting home fast was more important than sticking to the speed limit,swerved, and knocked him down . There are no words to describe how awful it is to know that he would have had a good chance of surviving had the driver stuck to the speed limit. It was 12 years ago this year but it still hurts so much words can't do it justice.

Even if you're running late, whatever, please think is it more important than someones life?

oh tiredfeet, that's terrible, i'm so sorry.

I know Aitch but I am by no means the only person sadly. I just find it so hard when people don't understand that they are driving a vehicle that has the potential to kill, and don't treat driving with the respect it deserves. I realise noone can really understand unless they have lost someone this way, but it does suprise me that despite all the facts /figures that are well established (as Riven etc have posted), people still think its fine to drive over the limit, especially in residential areas.

i don't understand it either, tiredfeet, it's crazy as far as i'm concerned. i have my kids in the car most of the time and i just cannot knowingly speed in case we have an accident and something happens to them. i could not live with myself.

and of course extrapolate that out to the fact that if you hit someone else then they're also someone's kid, no matter the age.