Dear Sir Peter,
I am very concerned about an item from the Press Association which has attributed comments from the New Transport Secretary, Patrick McLoughlin to Sky News.
Quote: ‘Speed does kill’ As you may know I have analysed this silly sound-bite and without a qualification, which then makes it pointless & debateable as a sound-bite, the reverse is the truth. In fact without speed, which is an essential of motion, we all die. From the time we took to the horse, the train, the plane, motor transport, faster shipping, the faster production lines, so life expectancy has gone up not down.
I am appalled that the Minister’s perception of the important life & death issue of road safety, and road safety policy should be based on simplistic, untrue, spin and sound-bite. The truth is actually ‘No speed kills’ so is there any chance Mr McLoughlin will be quoting a truth instead of a falsehood from now on?
He then implies that ‘speeding’ causes accidents. ‘Many serious accidents occurred when people were breaking the speed limits’ he said and also ‘most of the very serious accidents that take place on our roads involve people disobeying the speed limits’. The question isn’t if people were ‘speeding’ prior to an accident but the main or primary cause of accidents? His focus on speeding is dangerously failing to recognise the real causes.
Most accidents are below the speed limits, even most of the very worst, the head on collision. In some cases ‘speeding’ will also be present but always totally coincidental. Perhaps the minister should consult physics scientists who will explain, as we do, that to simply exceed a number on a pole cannot cause anything to happen. We explain this fully. See: What does cause accidents is driving too fast at any speed, often below the limits. I am concerned that we have yet another minister whose road safety policy will depend on false sound-bite and little knowledge of accident causes.
