Fining speeding drivers 10,000 pounds

[hollyisalovelyname]

Why not just take their car away?

[digdeepforanswers]

The 10 grand fine will never happen. But it is a crackpot thing to have on the statute book

[CoteDAzur]

Exactly, MrsTerry.

[MrsTerryPratchett]

Found this Interesting about relative speeds.

[niceguy2]

Exactly MrsTerry.

When you look at the amount of traffic that is on the roads and compared to our counterparts the UK is amongst the best.

So if there's a sensible argument or policy that will reduce accidents then I'm all for it but so far there's absolutely no evidence that this will do anything but raise money for the state.

[LaurieFairyCake]

As far as I'm aware the people most likely to die are young male drivers - they outnumber other casualties 5/1

Speeding over 70 is not really the problem as very few people die on motorways

People die driving too fast on B roads, with other teenagers in the car, and they drive into a stationary object.

Driving at 80 on the motorway is least likely to be involved in an accident.

[MrsTerryPratchett]

How is that calculated when someone is distracted, drunk and speeding? Also, we are talking about speed limits. Almost half the 'speed' deaths were under the speed limit, just excessive for the conditions.

[WallyBantersJunkBox]

Speeding down a well maintained road may not kill you, but why is that your risk to take, you are not fully in control of all of the variables in a public space are you - other cars pulling out at a legal speed, people misjudging your speed when crossing roads, birds hitting your windscreen etc

The 400 deaths were caused by excess speed alone. The deaths from drink driving for example, are categorised separately:

www.rospa.com/faqs/detail.aspx?faq=296

[MrsTerryPratchett]

We are accepting of it because it it rare in comparison to how much we drive, bike, walk on pavements and the like. We use our cars a lot and our roads are very safe in comparison to the rest of the world.

I also dislike the phrase, "Like the 400 people killed a year through speeding alone?" People were not killed through speeding. Speed would have been a factor in their deaths. Speeding down a straight road, in a well-maintained vehicle, with no other vehicles or people in the area, whilst fully awake, sober and alert won't kill you. Doing exactly the speed limit when it's raining, you're too close or under the influence/texting is extremely dangerous.

Enforcing stopping distances, throwing the book at people who use devices while driving and so on would do more than fining the very few who drive very fast 10K.

[WallyBantersJunkBox]

Er...pay more attention to the statistics, be more aware of how the accidents are caused, perhaps - seeing as so many of them are avoidable and unnecessary?

Like the 400 people killed a year through speeding alone?

Of course people don't travel by jet everywhere, but if multiple jets were crashing over the UK on a more regular basis are we seriously saying we wouldn't be asking more questions?

So why are we so accepting of the biggest cause of accidental death in our country? And if we can get it down from 5500 to under 2000 what more can we do.

[MrsTerryPratchett]

Sorry, that sounded rude. Sit up more and do what?

[WallyBantersJunkBox]

I apologise, not road deaths, I mean road accident casualties.

[MrsTerryPratchett]

Sit up more and so what?

[WallyBantersJunkBox]

No, it's because of the way they are only reported locally. If every night on national TV the 9 or 10 people who have been killed that day, and the many more injured were announced, people would sit up more.

Road accidents are still the largest single cause of accidental death for people aged between 5 and 35 years in the UK.

They just aren't as newsworthy as train accidents or plane accidents with multiple deaths in one event.

[MrsTerryPratchett]

If we all relied on jets to take us to most places, lived on or near runways, each had a plane in our garage, it wouldn't be. Each one is a tragedy. As a statistic, it is still a small proportion.

[WallyBantersJunkBox]

I was told that there are enough road deaths in the UK weekly to fill a Jumbo jet.

And if a jumbo jet crashed every week in the UK, that would be a pretty hard statistic to swallow.

[MrsTerryPratchett]

Also, I would rigidly and with draconian zeal, enforce stopping distances. I hate tailgaters and my DD was just in a car accident because some bastard went into the back of the car she was in. He's lucky I wasn't in that car. Speed isn't that dangerous on faster roads with decent stopping distances.

I also have a secret theory that one reason is that people who are nervous, aging badly or simply bad drivers avoid driving in the UK because they get told off a lot (honking if they block roads etc.). Here they all drive with impunity. I saw someone who was 90 if a day (really) stopped by the Police here the other day. Weaving all over the road and no one beeped her.

[CoteDAzur]

"Canada, with lower speed limits than the UK, less people regularly speed from what I can see, and it has a much higher rate of RTA deaths per mile traveled and per person and per vehicle. Why is that?"

That would be because the real danger on the roads is not maximum speed but difference in speed between the vehicles. The lower the speed limit, the higher the chance that people will just ignore the limit and go at whatever speed they fancy, increasing the chance that an old biddy driving at 20 mph will collide with one going at 40 mph.

[Nocomet]

The trouble is 150 on the M50 in a well maintained sports car is far safer than 30 past DDs secondary school because there are boys that just think they are imortal.

[niceguy2]

Personally I think we're getting a bit silly. I think it's commonly accepted that we have the one of the safest road networks in the world with one of the lowest casualty rates in the western world.

In that context it's hard for me to understand what we have to gain here. I don't subscribe to the whole "One accident is one too many" argument since the logical conclusion of that theory is that we just ban all cars then we'd have none right?

Anything above that and it becomes a tradeoff between people doing their business effectively and road safety.

To me this is making another law just for making another law's sake.

[TheHammaconda]

Romania and Lithuania have the highest number of fatalities per million of the population: Eurostat. Malta and the UK have the lowest.

Speed is only one factor that will account for the difference.

[WallyBantersJunkBox]

Statistically I was thinking of the larger European countries that tilt the numbers a bit.

130 km in France, Belgium and Italy. I think Austria is the same. Possibly the Netherlands and Luxembourg too. Germany has no speed restriction on the autobahn, but a suggested 130km. I've witnessed some horrendous speeding on the autobahn, and seen a few horrific accidents.

What I meant was that possibly the majority of drivers in the UK are doing day to day short 30 mph journeys? When I lived in the US even the shortest journey seemed to involve a freeway....

[Fram]

The cynical part of me says it's a money-making scheme.
But tbh if you don't want to be fined, don't break the law!

[MrsTerryPratchett]

x-posted

[MrsTerryPratchett]

B roads in the UK can have a higher speed limit than highways near me in Canada. I though some of the Scandies had the slowest roads...

[TheHammaconda]

In Sweden and Denmark the speed limit on M'ways is 110kmph which is just less than 70mph. Have no idea how safe those roads are.