you have probably heard of the catchphrase "speed kills" but why is that there are
more accidents on public roads than Indy 500 tracks even though traffic on Indy
500 track is much faster than a public road there are far fewer accidents there
I know... I know it's not really a fair comparison since there are so many other
factors involved but that's how my girlfriend explained it to me while she
was speeding through traffic while it may not be an accurate comparison it
does raise the question how much truth is there in the famous saying speed
kills awesome speed has never killed anyone
suddenly becoming stationary that's your answer all jokes aside when it comes to
pure physics it's hard to argue otherwise the energy of a collision
increases as the square of velocity collision at 100 miles per hour isn't
four time as bad as the one at 25 miles per hour it's 16 times as bad but you
see highway safety involves bit more than just theoretical calculations
according to the World Health Organization the who is safer to drive
in Germany home of fastest highways in the world than it is in the United
States who data shows that Germany's death
rate is 6.4 deaths per 100,000 cars United States rate is 14.2
more than double that of Germany so what does kill well inconsiderate drivers
kill you know the ones that change lanes without checking mirrors and blind spots
just because they indicate it and therefore they feel like they always
have the right of way drunk driving also kills by the virtue of impaired vision
responses and general coordination keeping your following distance too
short can also get you killed how can you react and stop quicker than
the laws of physics allow but perhaps the only real cause of death that is in
any way related to speed is difference in speed speed differential is one of
the main causes of death and car accidents that doesn't just mean the guy
doing 90 miles per hour on the highway crashing into someone obeying the 70
miles per hour limit it also applies to the guy doing 30 miles per hour
on a highway where the rest of the traffic is
flowing at 70 miles per hour speed limit that difference of 50 miles per hour is
far more dangerous than 20 mile per hour difference in the first scenario in a
crash between two vehicles in both scenarios the second one is far more
likely to generate a fatality driving either faster or slower than the flow of
traffic is what will actually cause the accident and fatalities that's what
kills not speed itself in fact when Germany implemented a speed limit of 130
km/h or 80 miles per hour on its unrestricted motorways in 1974 the
number of person killed in road accidents over the next few years
increase proving a speed limit doesn't necessarily reduce Road fatalities
there's a natural speed all over the planet based on the situation visibility
and surrounding that's the speed we gravitate to we shouldn't be
criminalized for driving at a safe and responsible speed countless studies on
the relationship between speed and risk have shown that the real-world safety
can involve a mind-boggling set of variables setting an artificially low
limit can actually make a road more dangerous by creating greater speed
differential between the slowest and the fastest drivers one of the most
interesting Studies on speed was published in 1964 by researcher David
Solomon who developed a graph that became known as the Solomon curve after
plotting data gathered from over 10,000 highway crashes Solomon showed that the
likelihood of being in a crash follows a u-shaped curve and that the drivers
traveling at the traffic's median speed were the least likely to be involved in
an accident well then another important question
rises why do you majority of the governments around the world have speed
limits reasons may have more to do with your dollars than your safety according
to you auto insurance org speeding tickets generate more than five billion
dollars in revenue for North American municipalities each year they also
generate ten point two billion dollars in extra revenue for insurance companies
who add an average of three hundred dollars in surcharges for each ticket
the site also found an inverse relationship between municipal
growth and speed enforcement on average a 10% decline in city's economy grew it
resulted in 6.4 percent increase in tickets issued for a failing
municipality speeding tickets can serve as a sin tax a category that also
includes casinos and lotteries there is no blanket yes or no answer to the
question if the speed limits are needed or not but government agencies
arbitrarily setting low speed limits to increase their revenue is definitely not
right so I want to pass the question to you what do you think are speed limits
making the roads safer or are they just a cash grab scheme