Safe Speed Forums

Here's another example of people thinking that the speed limit is safe in less than ideal conditions, there are a few other stories saying a similar thing as this person. See the end comment on this link.

http://www.car-accidents.com/pages/acci ... 23-04.html

Andrew

Only idiots would suggest such a thing is practiced.

Only absolute imbeciles would actually do it.

Who does suggest this is done anyway?

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It's Champion Man

Well going back to last week, here in Northants, we had some of the most intense, torrential rain I have ever had the misfortune to drive in. I could see, literally, less than 20m in front of me.

Now I was driving on the A14, so a 70mph limit, and I had slowed to approximately 30mph simply because any faster than that would be suicide. As the rain carried on pouring down, I became increasingly worried (actually, scared for my life would be a better phrase) as complete and utter morons carried on straight past me at 60mph+.

In the end, I had to pull into a layby and wait for the rain to subside because I was genuinely concerned that I was about to be taken off the road by one of these morons - there was simply no way that they could react at those speeds, I lost the sight of people's tail lights just metres in front of me, yet there were people tanking around at double my speed completely blind.

Anyway, I guess that proves that lots of people consider the speed limit to be the safe speed to drive at, regardless of conditions.

As an interesting side note, a guy who I often pass on my journey back from work and who is famous for driving at least as 'spiritidly' as I do, on occasion (the lucky get has a Merc C32 AMG) was one of the very few others to pull over and pray for his life. At the same time, I saw plenty of middle-aged women in their 106s, Corsas and Polos who will give you the dirtiest look you can possibly imagine should you pass them at anything above 70mph, yet they consider 60mph in some of the worst driving conditions I've driven in perfectly fine, because it's under the speed limit.

So it just goes to show that those of us who are, as Chumpion Mun would say, 'speedaholics' are not the most dangerous drivers on the road at all.

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Carl Prescott

Then this is going to sound really stupid to you, but I'm going to say it anyway. Just about every time I'm out in the rain I see people doing this. Some weeks ago I mentioned in a post that I was on a fairly short NSL dual carriageway in very heavy rain, and the conditions were so bad I'd reduced speed to about 30. I was the slowest guy on the road, and most were passing me at 50-60. More recently I was coming up from the west country about a fortnight ago, and got caught in torrential rain on the M3 south of Basingstoke. Again, while most drivers slowed they didn't slow anything like enough, and some appeared not to slow at all. I'm sure I'll see more of the same before long. As for the car-accidents.com site, you only have to browse through the stories there to find some more people who have crashed at speeds unsafe for the conditions.

[quote="itschampionman"]Only absolute imbeciles would actually do it.[quote]Yeah, it's pretty stupid, I agree. But that doesn't mean it's not happening.

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Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler - Einstein

Yet another case of "Stupid People"!

Who the f*ck drives at 100kph in the snow anyway!!!!

Yep, this is standard behaviour on the M54, tailgating at speed in driving rain -mass stupidity I called it in another post and I stick by that assertion.

Sheep, following other sheep, with no thought as to what they are doing or consideration for the danger they are exposing themselves to.

You would be amazed at what ends up in A&E up here.... usually as result of crass stupidity - enforced by local scamerati

You really do have to doubt the sanity of someone driving at 100km/h in SNOW! However, I (as others have described) have seen people driving at the speed limit (perhaps they'd normally be driving 10mph over it) when conditions are utterly appalling, and I've been forced to slow right down.

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-mike[F]
Caught in the rush of the crowd, lost in a wall of sound..

Providing that the air is dry, the surface cold enough and that the snow is well-packed, a snow road has similar properties to a dry concrete road especially at night. In fact, seasonal snow roads are the norm in sub-arctic regions, including the northern Canadian territories. The road surface, under these conditions, does not make handling a car at 60mph any more of a problem than normal.

The problems arise when the surface temperature approaches the freezing point or, when warmer moist air is advected into the region or, when there is fresh snow or rain. Slight changes in the weather, or differences in microclimate, can reduce the available friction dramatically.

I have driven many thousands of km on snow roads, many at 100kmh+ quite safely. There were times however, when I stayed at home .

Brits drive poorly in snow. This incident was in Quebec, where the snow is often hard - not the slush in the UK. 100kph in the snow is a bit on the fast side, but still fine, if the temperature is a little low (less than -10) and its been ploughed, or if the surface is hard and you have good winter tires. People using the Autobahnen often zoom along at more than this, and on the Trans-Canada, up in the Rockies near Revelstoke and Golden, you can zoom alongside cliffs on a two lane highway on top of 2 foot of hard snow with no problems at all at 80 or even 100 kph. After all, it's a 14 hour drive between Calgary and Vancouver and it it always snows in the winter, so you have to get going.

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I stole this .sig

Carl P,

I agree with you entirely, I saw the lemmings on the M25 and M11 on Wednesday afternoon.... London had a deluge at around 4-5 pm and the road conditions were abysmal. There were people in the outside lane passing at 90+ while tailgating, I can't understand that kind of mentality, I had enough difficulty seeing where I was going at 40.

The number of cars without lights on was alarming too, not saying that we should blind everyone with the rear fogs but being invisible is suicidal.

Ric.

Poor visibility and rain on dual carriageway, had to overtake someone doing about 40MPH but I was sticking to about 50MPH, car comes up behind and I speed up past 60MPH just to see what the car does, automatically starts tailing off at 60MPH as if doing that speed is fine but 61MPH is reckless. I pulled in to LH lane and back to about 50MPH and let them pass.

Andrew

I have to agreemany in the UK have poor driving skills in the snow where-as other countries more used to this kind of weather are better at it.

Perhaps this is something they should take into account in driving tests, as well as fog, rain, ice etc...