Drink Driving & Speeding Are Not Most Dangerous Activities

Monday, 25. October 2010

: Image via Wikipedia

What are the two most dangerous things that a motorist can do that could result in injury or death? Most people would assume this to be the two things that the government, media and safety organisations obsess over. Speeding and drink driving. We are about to be hit with a campaign regarding drink driving as we run up to Christmas and there seems to be a year round campaign to demonise those that speed. Now I don’t suggest for one moment that I support drink driving or speeding but it’s a question of proportion and targeting the campaigns where they will do most good. There’s no point in campaigning to stop people eating red meat when they all continue to smoke. And this is exactly the case when it comes to speeding and drink driving but in fact, according to Department for Transport statistics neither of these driver failings feature in the top ten causes of road accidents. In fact speeding features in only 5% of all accidents so in 95% of all accidents speeding is not only – not the cause it doesn’t even contribute. In road safety terms it is clearly only a minor problem compared to other causes. So should the government campaign on different causes? I believe they should, as does Mike Rutherford, columnist with Auto Express. According to the Department for Transport, the main cause of accidents, injury and death is poor eyesight or those that don’t use their eyes properly to observe what is happening around them. Failing to judge the path and speed of other drivers sits some way back at position 2. Carelessness and rushing about comes in at third followed by simple loss of control (not through speeding). Poor turns and driving manoeuvres are next and even at low speed have resulted in deaths. Other factors include slippery roads, pedestrians not looking or taking care and drivers driving too fast for the conditions even though they are within the legal limit, such as driving within the 70mph limit on a motorway and hitting a bank of fog. Sudden braking and driving too close finish off the top 10. No mention of speeding or drink driving. Should the government and local authorities concentrate more on the big contributors to accidents, injury and death. As Mike Rutherford pointed out if we could eliminate speeding altogether it would only have a very small affect on the number of accidents compared to the difference that would result if drivers had better eyesight and took greater care whilst driving. Do you have any views on this? By Graham Hill