Karl believes that the obsession with speeding has actually created a real issue – that of distracted drivers who are constantly focussing on the speedo rather than the road in front.
Turn on the TV or listen to the radio in just about every country across the globe, and the message comes across loud and clear: Slow down and save lives.
It’s true – the slower we go, the safer we get. Stay in bed and don’t move all day and you’re not likely to get killed in a car accident. But there’s an insidious falsehood also creeping in.
Some governments have been spreading the missive that “Every kilometre over is a killer.” Slogans like this one haven’t been devised by the police, or even by a road safety council. They’ve been created by advertising agencies. Not a great way to start – who could ever trust someone whose job it is to sell you something?
This common belief that when you’re speeding you’re going to die is a simple idea to get across, and with enough scare tactics, people have started to believe it. A broad-brush approach to speeding is simply going after the low-hanging fruit to try to curb crashes. It does, however, come from a good motive.
One death is one too many. No arguments from us – we can all agree on that. But it’s the way the message is portrayed that’s the issue here.
According to the government and those policing the roads, if you speed, you’re going to die. This is blatantly untrue. Let me explain why.
The definition of speeding is going over the speed limit. So, exceed an arbitrary number and you’re speeding. If the speed limit is 70km/h and you do 71km/h, well, guess what – you’re speeding. If the limit was 5km/h (as in a car park) and you do 6km/h, then you’re speeding. Are you going to be killed by exceeding the speed limit by a kilometre or two? The answer is obvious.
The obsession with speeding has actually created a real issue. A recent study by the University of Western Australia found that the focus on speeding was actually creating more distracted drivers. That’s because if you’re constantly focussing on your speedo to ensure you’re not speeding, you’re not looking at the road in front.
This isn’t just dangerous, it’s deadly. Lead researcher of the study, Dr Vanessa Bowden, said the study found that the mental and visual resources of drivers were being used up by constantly monitoring their speed. Our attention needs to be on the job at hand, not concentrating on a tiny dial – to make sure a needle doesn’t swing past a couple of printed digits.
The thing is, you usually know what speed you’re doing, even without looking at the dial. Travelling at 50km/h feels vastly different to travelling at 100km/h. We’re not advocating running around at double the posted limit everywhere – that would be ridiculous. But we need to make the distinction between speeding and excessive speed.
Speeding is simply going over the speed limit. Excessive speed is going too fast for the conditions.
This is something we need to understand properly. Technically you can drive at 110km/h in a 110km/h zone when it’s pouring with rain, there’s a curve ahead, your tyres are cheap Chinese garbage, and there’s standing water all over the road.
This is legal because you’re not speeding. But you have to ask yourself if it’s the wisest course of action. Breaking the speed limit isn’t dangerous in itself, but, coupled with excessive speed, it definitely is. However, excessive speed is dangerous at any time, regardless of whether you’re speeding or not.
Can you see the difference? That’s good, because most governments can’t. If we could all learn the difference, we’d be a whole lot safer.
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