Do you think 15mph speedlimits would help reduce accidents?

[Cyclone]

I've seen no evidence that slower drivers cause more accidents, have you?

 

Excess speed is a primary factor in 5% of accidents, it's a secondary factor in many more though.

[sgtkate]

Logic would dictate that if cars were doing 0mph there would be no accidents so every accident is caused by speed to some extent.

 

I am clearly not suggesting that we ban cars, far, far from it, just that to casually chuck 'speed' out of the equation of most accidents is probably naïve.

[hyper]

I've not found 20 mph limits to be an issue either. Lately I've been driving around Crookes and most of the side roads there are only comfortable at 13-14 mph so 15mph limit wouldn't be a problem.

on a side note, what a crappy pothole-riddled road surface there is around Crookes. All the way from Noahs Ark down to Heavygate. And for such a busy area.

[srt2016]

I've seen no evidence that slower drivers cause more accidents, have you?

 

Excess speed is a primary factor in 5% of accidents, it's a secondary factor in many more though.

 

Well here is some....

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2016721/Slow-drivers-dangerous-roads-cause-crashes.html

 

But if you get out a little more you will see it for yourself.

[hyper]

Well here is some....

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2016721/Slow-drivers-dangerous-roads-cause-crashes.html

 

But if you get out a little more you will see it for yourself.

 

I agree.

The worst area for me is around the shops at Crosspool. You see these old fellas in their Toyota automatic saloons unable to proceed at the junction because there is another car in the same postcode and then squeeze through a gap while straddling the white line where most of us would have waited. My kids often ask why I get annoyed and I have to tell them that people are in charge of a ton of metal, which if incompetent hands can kill.

[Cyclone]

Well here is some....

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2016721/Slow-drivers-dangerous-roads-cause-crashes.html

 

But if you get out a little more you will see it for yourself.

 

Getting out more wouldn't help, that would be anecdotal.

 

We can work with this though.

 

Transport Department figures show 143 accidents a year are caused directly by slow drivers

 

 

We can add this

 

Failed to look properly was the most frequently reported contributory factor and was reported in 44 per cent of all accidents reported to the police in 2014. For fatal accidents the most frequently reported contributory factor was loss of control, which was involved in 32 per cent of fatal accidents.

 

For accidents where a pedestrian was injured or killed, pedestrian failed to look properly was reported in 59 per cent of accidents, and pedestrian careless, reckless or in a hurry was reported in 29 per cent of accidents.

 

Exceeding the speed limit was reported as a factor in 5 per cent of all accidents, but these accidents involved 17 per cent of fatalities. At least one of exceeding the speed limit and travelling too fast for the conditions was reported in 10 per cent of all accidents and these accidents accounted for 25 per cent of all fatalities.

 

66 per cent of fatalities in reported road accidents had driver or rider error or reaction (which included failing to look properly, loss of control and sudden braking) reported as a contributory factor leading to the accident.

 

 

And then we just need to know how many reported accidents there are.

 

I'm struggling to find that number, but there are 200,000 casualties a year. And of course there are many accidents with no casualties, but lets ignore those as they won't be included in the 143 figure)...

 

The problem is that injury accidents might well injure more than 1 person, and some non-injury accidents WILL be reported. So I'm not sure what is a safe assumption to make regarding injuries/accident. Lets go on the side of caution and say 2/accident, okay?

100,000 accidents a year (reported). Of which 143 attributed to slow drivers.

 

That's 0.143% of accidents caused by slow driving.

 

Not really comparable with the 44% caused by "failure to look" is it... Or even with the 5% attributed to excess speed.

Edited February 11, 2016 by Cyclone

[dragoness]

The OP refers to people walking out into the road without looking, or on their mobile phones.

If they are involved in an accident it's always someone else's fault. No one wants to accept responsibility for their own actions any more.

Basically it doesn't matter what laws or regulations are passed - you can't legislate against stupidity!

[JBFox]

The OP refers to people walking out into the road without looking, or on their mobile phones.

If they are involved in an accident it's always someone else's fault. No one wants to accept responsibility for their own actions any more.

Basically it doesn't matter what laws or regulations are passed - you can't legislate against stupidity!

 

I think posts in response to the initial post by the OP have proved that stupidity isn't always the case on the pedestrian's behalf. The other day for example, I was crossing a road and this car came towards me and the driver began to accelerate towards me on purpose in a bid to intimidate me. If she would have hit me the law would say she was at fault. Also, someone driving past a level crossing when a pedestrian is waiting to cross can't be blamed on the stupidity of the pedestrian but the stupidity of the idiot in the car! As well as that there are idiots on LOOKING DOWN at their mobile phones whilst driving, which is becoming more common. If someone is doing that at thirty miles per hour and they don't notice that a person is ALREADY in the road crossing by the time they arrive (the pedestrian's not at fault) and the car driver hits them, it could be more harmful to the pedestrian than if the car driver was driving at 15 MPH. So, to summarise, we need lower speed limits because car drivers cannot be trusted and seem to like to bully other road users...if only that woman's car had broken down after she sped up towards me...I would make her fearful of driving a car ever again!!

[Eater Sundae]

Does it mean that 143 accidents were caused BECAUSE the drivers were driving slowly, or that they were driving slowly and happened to be in an accident due to some other cause?

[Orzel]

I agree.

The worst area for me is around the shops at Crosspool. You see these old fellas in their Toyota automatic saloons unable to proceed at the junction because there is another car in the same postcode and then squeeze through a gap while straddling the white line where most of us would have waited. My kids often ask why I get annoyed and I have to tell them that people are in charge of a ton of metal, which if incompetent hands can kill.

 

I saw those types trying to join traffic in peak times on motorway.

Standing on end of slip road with indicator on while both lanes are going 50+mph.

I wonder how many hours it takes them to set off.

That must take better part of time they have left.