Gotta a question, wanna see what y'all think. In an automobile accident how relevant is the speed of the drivers? Does speeding cause accidents. I don't believe it does, and I want to get some opinions. I would really like to hear from some cops. Let me explain my rationale. Every accident you read about, see, or, God forbid, are involved in, will have been a result of several factors, one of which might be that one of the drivers couldn't stop in time. The other factors almost always play a bigger role; car runs a red light, stopsign etc. drunk driver swerving, illegal lane change, reckless driving or weaving back and forth through traffic, car turning left misjudges oncoming cars speed, driver is applying makeup/eating/talking on the cellphone/hitting kids in the backseat/or in some other way too occupied to pay attention to the road. Some other lapse in judgement that places the speeder in a bad situation that could lead to an accident Inattention is probably the number one cause on traffic accidents. On a foggy night several years ago on Colonial Drive in East Orlando some idiot in a purple ford escort pulls out in front of me, slowly. I hit my brakes and manage to not hit him, but he really was taking his sweet ass time. The chevy blazer behind me went in the ditch though. If he had hit me, he would have bought me a new truck, even though the ford escort was at fault. Would anybody know the increased stopping distance for every extra 10 mph. Someone could pull out in front of you when you are going the speed limit and cause a bad situation, to which you should not be at fault, as well. True it's a little less likely, and I would like to know how much less, but it is still a possibility I will concede a couple of points. Driving to fast in the rain or snow is stupid. You hydroplane, lose control and crash into a tree. I am talking about dry surfaces. Driving too fast around a corner is stupid, your tires skid, you lose control and crash into a tree. I am talking about straight roads, or lightly curved roads. Driving too fast in heavy traffic, weaving in and out is stupid. Tailgating is stupid (They give tickets for tailgating on the autobahn, even when there is no speedlimit.) You misjudge the distance between cars in a lane change at 50 mph you could make a big mess. I am talking about light traffic. True most of us don't get to drive in these types of situations, but they do exist. And of course blowouts happen. I don't know what to do there, but -proper maintenance should prevent problems. I am not advocating recklessness here, I just wonder why the police is so hung up on speeding. Maybe the cops should not focus on speeding and get people to realize that when we get behind the wheel of a car we put our lives, as well as the lives of everyone around us, on the line.
Didnt read past the causes of accidents which I agree with. My attention span is border line ADHD right now- yes, speeding causes accidents. BUT, let's say it doesn't for just a second.... the force of impact is much more deadly and dangerous right there. Also, don't forget reaction time. I HATE it when people drive too fast on the highway because you can't control other drivers and if you're going 90 MPH and run into a situation where you have to stop FAST... not easy....
I can help a little here. Most Professional companies use something called the Smith System and it involves a 15 &7 Rule 15 seconds eye lead time and 7 seconds following distance for our trucks. It takes at 60MPH roughly 5-6 seconds for us to come to a complete stop under ideal settings. So if your looking ahead getting the whole big picture of all that is around you you could have the time to see things happening. There is a table to show added speed ect but most accidents are preventable even if your not cited for it as your fault in our profession we can still be held by our employers accountable. Example you gave, had the you not slowed down to a lower speed due to the fog to a speed that you could see far enough ahead you would have not put yourself in a situation that you needed to make a rapid stop, had the driver behind you not kept his distance and speed correct again he would not have ended up in the ditch and had the driver who pulled out in front of you all not been stupid, well you get the picture. The only thing reduced speed really can do is change a wreck from fatal to injuries normally. Lowered speed limits allow more time for reaction but also create issues of fustration and congestion. In a perfect world 55 is great if everyone did 55, but then 100 would be great if everyone did 100 you know, it would flow good, poeple get over for merging trafic ect. Most accidents are casued by lack of attention, nothing more. You do not get the big picture, you are doing something else ect.
I don;t think you can measure which is worse. Doesn't matter, retard drivers of all types are dangerous I hate people that drive recklessly, seriously
I have had to do narrative driving many times as a trainer for new drivers. You tell outloud what you see, in your mirrors, out front, what is the immediate dangers, ect for a 30 minute road trip, your mouth gets real real dry. In heavy traffic if you slow down like 5mph under the rest of the people, it pisses em off but you hardly have to use your breaks, people just pass you by and you use less fuel from rapid starts and stops, well at least in a vehicle that guzzles 5-7mpg. Less shifting and when 10+ gears is in the cab, it helps alot.
Speeding can definitely cause wrecks, but I think the biggest reason why speeding is discouraged is because of physics. If you don't consider the physics when driving, your license should be ripped from your hands and used to give you very aggravating wounds that are then rubbed with salt. Case in point (woot, this is the second time tonight I get to mention my wreck!): In late March, my boyfriend and I were in an unavoidable wreck. The impact forced the jack that we had in the trunk to knock the backseat down and slam into the back of my seat. Had we been speeding, the jack wouldn't have just pushed my seat forward and ended up giving me sore muscles, it would have severed my spine, paralyzing or even killing me, just because of the physics. Yes, most wrecks are caused simply because of misjudgement or impairment on one or the other driver's behalf, but they have to place speed limits because if they didn't, you'd have an even bigger problem than there is now. Speed limits don't just give people guidelines to keep order, but they also can save people's lives. Physics plays a nasty part in car accidents.
Speed was not your issue, the fact that your speed was stopped was the issue. My point a head on wreck 35MPH both cars is rated as a 70mph impact into a brick wall, its not totally true as the cars tend to absorb some shock but yeah its close, a head on at 55 is 110 and so on, now if your doing 55 and a car hits your from behind at say 70, thats only a 15mph wreck, the rest of the damage is from your lack of control if you spin out ect. Again most wrecks are lack of attention, people not looking at thier surroundings, even drunk driver fall into this catagory, so yes they are drunk, but they wreck from again lack of attention, it was impaired. Anyway, I talk tooo tooo much, lol and very sorry you had the burden of a weck but happy you were not hurt worse that you were.
Haha, that wasn't the point I was trying to make exactly...just the fact that had we been going faster, the impact would've probably been way worse. What happened basically was we were driving down a street and the lady we hit decided it was a good idea to pull out 2 seconds before our car met the side of hers. So, the impact itself was about 30 mph or so. It wasn't a horrible wreck and the worst injuries were bruises and aches and minor scrapes, but because of the jack in back, it very well could have turned out fatal. It's weird, though...I still haven't been all that shaken up by the mortality of the situation. I guess I'm not as scared of death as I had thought I was.
I read your post, but none of the lengthy replys. You forgot one thing on that list of reasons for an accident: bad weather thats why i rear ended this one truck because i couldnt stop in less than like 300 feet or some bullshit and it was raining. that was a horrible car
It was not the bad weather but rather you did not allow for the road conditions, the stopping distance of any vehicle is regulated under different circumstances. Good clear warm day light load around 20K in the box I can stop in around 400 feet, add more weight, change road conditions, temps, ect and the distance will greatly increase. Im not pointing blame, just telling you how the laws regulate commercial carriers. The police might clear us, but insurance companies will run us through the wringer. You run a red light but it had just changed they insurance company will blame us, we should have looked and made sure all traffic was stopped. You come on from an onramp and hit us, well we should have seen you comming on and slowed down. With us it is not about being right, its about if we could have avoided it, this is the term preventable and non preventable accidents on our DAK reports come from. See if a person is driving erradic comming up from behind us, we should have been making checks in our mirrors and preparing for that situation.
Sorry to all of you who thought I am a bit verbose, but I just went on a rant. Sorry. But Trucker, you got the idea. inattention causes accidents, not speed. Problem is around here all the dickheads who drive fast AND don't pay attention.
