DON'T FOOL YOURSELF - SPEED KILLS

The three facts you should know

FACT: speed is a factor in 75% of accidents on our roads.

FACT: the faster you go, the harder you hit.

FACT: the sentence for speeding can be a high fine or imprisonment, earning the offender a criminal record.

SPEED KILLS BECAUSE: 1. The severity of a crash increases with speed. If you speed you might not be able to stop. With a reaction time of one second, it will take the average driver driving at 110km/h about 90m to come to a stop on a dry surface.

If the driver encounters a hazard such as a pedestrian at a distance, of say, 60m ahead, the car will hit the pedestrian at an impact speed of 80km/h. At that speed there is a 100 percent chance that the pedestrian will be killed.

If the driver were driving at 100km/h instead of 110, the collision speed would be 60km/h and the chances of the pedestrian being killed would be reduced to 70 percent.

Had this driver been driving at 90km/h, the collision speed would have been 30km/h and the chance of death for the pedestrian would be educed further still, to approximately 7%. And the driver? The implications are just as dire for the occupants of the car. Their likelihood of death at a collision speed of 80km/h is 20 times higher than at an impact speed of 32 km/h.

Put this into an urban context. If a child steps off a pavement 35 metres ahead of you, at the recommended speed of 50km/h you would stop with nine metres to spare. At the speed limit of 60km/h you would have only two metres to spare. At 70 km/h, the child would be dead.

This is why SPEED KILLS, and why speed is one of the major focuses in the ARRIVE ALIVE campaign this year.

2. The effectiveness of safety devices such as air bags and safety belts is severely compromised at high speed. The poor quality of many vehicles on our roads and the problem of overloading of vehicles further increase the risk of crashes.

3. Accident avoidance is more difficult at high speed because of the longer distance traveled during reaction time, the longer distance required to stop and the greater difficulty of controlling a vehicle at high speed.

4. Increased accident risk as high speed places greater strain on tires and brakes which increases the risk of failure.

5. Human factors: High speeds reduce the visual field of the driver, restrict his/her peripheral vision and place greater demand on the task of driving. In Sweden, Great Britain, Finland and other European countries road fatalities were reduced by lowering the speed limits. The lower speed limits reduced the severity of crashes as well as their number. Currently a large % of Canadian drivers exceed the 80km/h speed limit, x% the 70km/h limit and x% the 60km/h limit. Ê

WEATHER DOES NOT CAUSE ACCIDENTS ... driving too fast for the circumstances does. SLOW DOWN for POOR VISIBILITY when there is insufficient street lighting at night, when the sun is low on the horizon, in mist or in rain. Reduce your speed to below the speed limit as these conditions reduce vision and prevent a driver from reacting in time to hazardous situations.

SLOW DOWN when ROAD CONDITIONS are not good. Driving at high speed on a wet road surface, on gravel or through roadworks will cause a vehicle to skid if you have to brake or change direction suddenly. You have then lost control as the vehicle will continue skidding at the same speed and in the same direction as it was traveling.

SPEED OFFENDERS ARE KILLING OUR CHILDREN One in every 10 people killed on our roads is a child under the age of 12 because they can not judge speed or distance correctly because of their visual and physical limitations. If you speed, you make it impossible for a child to judge whether she or he can cross the road safely - often resulting in a driver hitting the child.

Many young people loose their lives or their lives are forever affected by accidents caused by speed. Today, cars and motorcycles are built for speed but our roads and communities are not.

No one sets out to cause injury or death, but whenever one takes the wheel, they should realize that it can happen.

Arrive Alive and remember - speed kills!