Safe Speed Forums

Can anyone tell me if emergency vehicles, such as police cars, ambulances etc, when exceeding the speed limit because of an emergency are included in the DFT stats?

If so it would be interesting to see how many accidents are caused by Joe Public exceeding the limits.

This is one of the foundations to this campaign. All vehicles are included in the DFT stats, this includes all emergency vehicles, stolen cars, drunks etc., etc.

Go to the DfT website and download the 2006 Contributory Factors (latest figures, 2007 not available yet).

Remember these are "crashes" so the number of actual casualties will be higher (at least 1 per crash),

You must also be clear what you are asking about. Do you mean "excessive speed" or do you mean "exceeding the speed limit"? Remember that MOST "excessive speed" crashes occur WITHIN the speed limit and the 2 are very different kinds of driving. "Exceeding the speed limit" is almost always safe, "excessive speed", when defined as "too fast for conditions", is never safe.

They have separate figures for serious and slight injuries but if we just look at deaths we find:

Total ......................................2703

Exceeding speed limit....................381 (Officer must only tick ONE of these two)
Travelling too fast for conditions*......493 (Officer must only tick ONE of these two)
(*the above is defined as WITHIN the speed limit)

Impaired by alcohol.......................259
Pedestrian impaired by alcohol..........121

Stolen vehicle...............................40
Vehicle in course of crime.................13
Other (Special codes).....................118


It's probably safe to assume that the vast majority of "Stolen vehicle" and "Vehicle in course of crime" were above the speed limit but what are these "Other" Special codes?

And some "Impaired by alcohol" will be the same crashes that had "Exceeding speed limit" but there is no cross-referencing so we don't know but, if TV, radio and newspapers are representative (a big "if"), then most "Exceeding speed limit" deaths will be by drunk drivers.

And, if they lower the drink drive limit, the "Impaired by alcohol" will rise.

And, once all the lower speed limits are implemented, the "Exceeding speed limit" will rise also.

You will notice that it's entirely possible that absolutely NO deaths were caused by honest, sober drivers who exceeded a speed limit!

Of course there must have been some but the number may well be vanishingly small and, whatever the answer, certainly not proportionate to the 2 million drivers prosecuted for speeding every year!

So less than 1/6 in these stats are speeding. And they use about 1/5 to cleverly argue the speed issue. It doesnt say in any case if the drunks and others are part of these figures or separate. Ya see how stats are a plague oh how I titter ! Lets have some more cameras...........................and lets use them as rectal probes on the deserving I say.