Speeding
Motorists' Attitudes to speeding
- Drivers believe that most people drive at around 10mph above the speed limit
- Drivers believe it is difficult to drive modern cars below 35mph
- Most people don't see 'speeding' as committing a 'real crime'
Prevalence of Speeding
- It is difficult to calculate just how many drivers are breaking the speed limit every day.
- Various contributory factors can be listed for accidents, including loss of control, travelling too fast for the conditions and exceeding the speed limit.
- Loss of control, of which speed can be a major cause, was the single biggest contributory factor in fatal traffic accidents in 2006, accounting 39% of all fatal accidents.
- In addition, travelling too fast for the conditions and exceeding the speed limit were cited as the contributory factor in 33% of fatal accidents.
Consequences of speeding
- Speeding can increase the risk of being involved in an accident
- Speeding can compromise the safety of the driver, passengers and other road users
- The speeding driver may begin to feel flustered and annoyed with other road users
- The speeding driver can receive 3 points on their licence for each speeding offence committed; which can eventually lead to a ban from driving with additional offences
- Some drivers can lose their employment due to convictions for speeding
- Passengers in a speeding car can feel annoyed at the driver and may be less likely to travel with the driver in the future
- Noise levels can be much higher in areas were people speed
- When drivers speed it can be harder for pedestrians to cross the road and cycling can feel more hazardous
Speed and road safety
- The provisional total number of people killed in road accidents in Scotland in 2003 was 332
- Reducing your speed leads to reducing the risk of crashing- for very 1mph reduction in average speed, crashes are reduced between 2 and 7 percent
- A pedestrian hit at 30mph is twice as likely to survive as one hit at 35mph
For more information, visit Road Safety Scotland's website
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