Safe Speed Forums

On the Larsoa site - http://www.larsoa.org.uk/news_oct04/new ... oa_cd.html - we have the following paragraph:

I don't see how the car ownership can play any part here - apart from vehicle safety.

Comments?

I'll dig out sources later, but a recent literature review I undertook showed company car drivers at greater risk of accident.

Reasons: lack of concentration, more distractions, more likely to take unnecessary risks to get to next sales conference/meeting, etc, more likely to drive tired (within the 2-4pm tiredness slump).

I have seen this before. It started because a large numbe of people are dumping their company cars and opting for mileage alowance because of th tax laws. As a result the cars tend to be less reliable, older, mave more mileage on, generaly less safe (older cars do not have the same safety features and are not always regulaly serviced)

I have a company car so I can symperthise. I have thought of taking the cash many times

It seams Ironic that you still pay additional company car tax on any additional safety feature you have installed in th car as well as the company paying the VAT.

Acording to the same report 1/3 of all driving fatalities are people on company business.

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Speed camera policy Kills

Careful! Some of the literature doesn't allow for higher average annual mileages amongst business users. I've spotted other pecularities too. (I'm trying to remember what they were).

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

I have seen 1 accident every 100,000 miles quoted. Thats once every 10 years for the average driver and once every 2.5 for the average company car driver..

We do drive in weather which would put most people on the bus though so that may add to the risk.

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Speed camera policy Kills

Indeed. But in terms of overall danger, doesn't higher-than-average mileage contribute a higher number of accidents overall?

I think you proved the same thing with your "causes of accidents to pedestrians per 100m vehicle accident kms" chart page ?? (Table 27 was it?).

For the most part we need to be concerned with "risk values". But you're right we need to be concerned with absolute numbers too.

I like this sort of example:

Road A has 10,000 vehicles a day and 50 crashes each year.

Road B has 10 vehicles a day and 5 crashes each year.

Clearly the risks on Road B facing an individual are 100 times greater.

But if we can speed 100,000 pounds to reduce crashes by 10%, we can save 5 crashes on road A and probably none on Road B.

But if we can spend money on the drivers we can make both roads safer...

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

I think employers do have some responsibility to look at the quality of the driving going on in their fleets. Thankfully many do, my wife had to go on a short driving awareness course even though her business mileage probably doesn't exceed 1k miles. One area of concern as I far as I see it is the lack of attention paid to the quality of driving within the NHS, (my employer). 3rd biggest employer in the world (true apparently) but apart from the ambulance service its all overlooked, (in my Strategic Health Authority area at least). No spare money. We're a very mobile workforce, particulalrly in primary care trusts and most people use their own vehicle (lots of old bangers about) because lease cars are expensive and difficult to come by. And we're always late. Scrreeeech....BANG!! Start writing to your MP now.

Employee's are given company cars, due to their job being mobile. They therefore spend more time on the road, thus increasing the risk of being in an accident.

Just a matter of the more time you spend on the road, the more idiots you are likley to come across.

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Steve

Or the more likely you are to believe that your 'x thousand miles' accident free motoring makes you a good driver.
Or the more likely you are that constantly pushing your luck in a vehicle you have no 'ownership' of will ultimately lead to an incident.