National road safety charity, Brake, releases new research to encourage motorists to kill their speed
Date:
May 2010
Towns and villages still blighted by speed, says national charity, Brake
The majority of drivers admit to killer speeds in towns and villages, finds research launched today by the charity Brake at an international conference in London on speed this morning [Thursday 13 May].
Almost three quarters (72%) drivers surveyed by the road safety charity and motor insurer admitted driving at 35mph or faster in a 30mph zone. Half of these offenders (36%) admitted doing this daily or at least once a week.
Brake chief executive Mary Williams OBE says: “There appears to be widespread complacency among drivers who may think they will be able to stop in time if they are just going ‘a few’ miles over 30 – but the physics of speed tells us they won’t, and the casualty figures tell us they don’t.
"Many of these drivers wouldn’t dream of drink or drug driving, but are prepared to risk lives by speeding. There need to be more campaigns that explain to otherwise law-abiding citizens the exponentially damaging effects of increases in speed.”
Every day in Britain, eight children and young people (aged 0 – 19) are killed or seriously injured on foot or bicycles[1][1].
There is no safe speed at which you can hit someone on foot. A car is a one tonne chunk of metal that can cause death or serious injury at any speed. However, by driving slowly in communities we stand a much greater chance of stopping in time.
As a driver’s speed rises, their stopping distances rise much quicker; stopping distances treble between 20mph and 40mph.
A car driven at 20mph or lower (the maximum speed limit recommended by Brake for towns and villages) can stop in 12 metres (about three car lengths) or less, giving the driver a good chance to brake and stop in time if a child runs out ahead.
A car driven at 30mph would still be travelling at about 27mph at the 12 metre marker, and would take nearly double this distance (23 metres) to stop (about six car lengths).
A child hit at 27mph is likely to suffer serious injury such as paralysis or brain injury, or die; this is the equivalent of a child falling backwards out the window of a three storey house (a drop of about 7.3m).
A car driven at 36mph would still be travelling at about 35mph at the 12 metre marker, and would take two and half times this distance (about 30 metres) to stop (about seven and a half car lengths).
A child hit at 35mph would almost certainly die or suffer very serious injury such as paralysis or brain injury; this is the equivalent of a child falling backwards off the balcony of a fifth floor apartment building onto concrete (a drop of about 12.6m).
20mph is the default urban limit in countries with significantly lower child pedestrian death rates, such as The Netherlands[2][2].
Brake is calling on the government to adopt the same limit in the UK.
Williams said: “Anyone who can understand that it isn’t safe for a child to fall out the window of a three storey house can also understand that 30mph is too fast for communities.
"There is an urgent need for the default 30mph limit to be changed to 20, and we also want this research to act as a rallying cry to all drivers to take personal responsibility to stop the carnage on our streets by dropping their speed to 20 or lower in towns and villages.
"There is no excuse that bears scrutiny for faster speeds in communities. Imagine telling a mother whose son had been killed by you that you were in a rush, or felt under pressure from other drivers, or just weren’t concentrating, or thought your fabulously engineered brakes gave you permission to drive faster.
"All drivers have a duty to protect the lives of the vulnerable people who are a major part of the fabric of communities, particularly children, the elderly and the disabled, by slowing down. Children, the elderly, the disabled, or anyone else on foot or a bicycle may make a mistake, but they don’t deserve the death penalty or to spend the rest of their life in a wheelchair because of drivers’ speed.”
For more information visit www.brake.org.uk
Notes to editors:
1. The research Speed (Brake and Direct Line report number 3) is based on confidential interviews with 900 drivers about their attitudes and behaviour relating to speed.
2. Drivers need to react before they can brake, and this takes time; 0.67 seconds is the chosen reaction or ‘thinking’ time (the time that drivers need before they brake) that has been used in the calculations for stopping distances in this release.
3. 0.67 seconds is a very fast reaction time and therefore must be seen as a minimum; the amount of thinking time that some people require will be longer, and therefore their stopping distances will be longer.
4. As speeds approach 40mph, drivers are increasingly unlikely to be able to reduce their speed within 12 metres, because at this speed they will still be reacting rather than braking. This means that a car being driven at 40mph would hit a child at 40mph if that child ran out into the road 12 metres ahead.
5. Brake focuses on driving slowly combined with vigilant driver hazard awareness to avoid as many collisions as possible. This is because collisions at any speed can be fatal. At any speed a person on foot can be crushed to death or seriously maimed by a vehicle if the collision results in them being run over by the vehicle. Even an impact at 4mph can be very damaging; it is equivalent to a small child being blindfolded and running full pelt into a wall.
6. The formula used for residual speed in the calculations used in this release is: VxV=UxU-20x(P-U) where V is the residual speed in miles/hour, U is the initial speed in miles/hour, and P is the distance to impact in feet.
About Brake
Brake is an independent national road safety charity. Brake exists to stop the 7 deaths and 71 serious injuries that happen on UK roads every day and to care for families bereaved and seriously injured in road crashes.
Brake produces educational literature, runs community training programmes and runs events including Road Safety Week (22-28 November 2010).
Brake’s Fleet Safety Forum provides up-to-date fleet safety resources for fleet managers.
BrakeCare, Brake’s support division, cares for road crash victims through a helpline and other services.