Educating Motorists

Wed 21 Mar 2007, 09:45

There's been an absurd undercurrent of motorist vs pedestrians sentiments expressed on a couple of the other transport topics.
Absurd, because everyone is a pedestrian, but not everyone is a motorist.

Ordinarily, I would be standing up for a minority's rights; but in this instance, this particular minority does extract a price from everyone else. Occasionally, in the form of life and limb.

Drivers cause over 1,000 deaths and 40,000 injuries in Britain a year.

How many deaths do you think pedestrians cause per year?

Not all motorists are speeding, reckless, inconsiderate drivers. But then again, no one considers themselves to be an unsafe driver.

What's irksome is the attitude of a few drivers (who are evidently motorists first and members of the human race second), that's there's a even playing field or equal competition between motorists, pedestrians and cyclists for the use of roads.

It's exactly this sort of distorted perception that creates an attitude and disposition that promotes unsafe driving.

And in order to alleviate these misconception, here are a few facts supplied by the Department of Transport that might shed some perspective on the issue:

.....You are more likely to be killed in an auto-related accident on a rural road than a city road.
∙∙∙∙∙Excessive speed is a contributory factor in over 1,000 deaths and over 40,000 injuries every year in Britain.
∙∙∙∙∙On average, nearly nine people die every day on Britain's roads.
∙∙∙∙∙Every driver can make a difference just by slowing down a few miles per hour and observing speed limits.
∙∙∙∙∙You are more likely to kill a pedestrian driving at 40mph than 30mph.

→Specifically, if you hit a pedestrian while driving at 20 mph, the pedestrian has a 95% chance of survival.
→If you hit an adult pedestrian while driving at 30mph, the survival chance is 80%. But if you hit a pedestrian while driving at 40mph, the pedestrian's chances of dying rises to 90%. (this lowers to 80% for a child).
→The law of physics dictate that the higher the speed at impact, the more energy must be rapidly absorbed by hard metal, soft flesh and brittle bone.
→Two out of three crashes where people are killed or injured happen on roads where the speed limit is 40mph or less.

−Research identified that over 70% of drivers in one study admitted to speeding (Stradling) and in other studies (Webster & Wells) the figure was 85%.
−Drivers still distinguish between 'ordinary, safe speeding drivers' and 'dangerous speeding drivers'.
−By many, speed is almost approved of - people can handle it, it's often necessary and many enjoy it - driving at 40mph in a 30mph zone was seen in one study as more acceptable than dropping litter (TNS).
−55% of drivers admit to exceeding the speed limit a little every day.
−93% of motorists said they have a sound knowledge of speed limits, yet only 50% could correctly identify the limit on a dual carriageway (70mph).
−Almost a quarter of drivers think it is acceptable to speed if they think the limit is too low.