I don't equate speed with being more dangerous. I am into performance cars and like to drive fast.........accidents are caused by stupidity, inexperience, negligence etc......but speed will be a big factor in the severity of the accident even though it may not have been the cause.......this is an important point which our government won't grasp. It is perfectly possible to drive safely at speed.......you simply need to know your limits, the cars limits, be aware of the conditions, and above all be extremely observant of the road ahead
The issue shouldn't really be in towns though as everything should be travelling at 30mph. I take your point a small car will stop quicker and likely do less damage but there are other factors at work here like design of the car.......from memory the ncap rating on the 500 for pedestrian safety wasn't too hot either.
I think I'm correct in saying that this legislation (certainly in the UK) will be aimed at reducing accidents involving young drivers. the majority of these accidents are at night on rural roads.......remembering back to my early driving days I can understand this as you were typically hammering down a country road seeing how fast you could go........in that instance it makes sense for you to be in a less powerful car.In our day it was usually a 1 litre family hatch as that was all we could afford to buy or insure.......so probably did 90mph tops and took a long straight to get anywhere near that.
If the driving test actually taught people car control then this may not be necessary, however, it doesn't so people learn to drive around the town and are then sent out onto the roads including motorways with no idea about high speed car control.
In Northern Ireland, all drivers are restricted to 45mph for 12 months after passing their test. They need to display 'R' plates to identify them and if caught over that limit the penalties are pretty tough......so they now get a years driving experience before being allowed to really put their foot down so to speak.......
My personal opinion is that people should be taught to drive properly with a huge emphasis on car control, ie what to do when the car gets out of control..........or perhaps more usefully giving people an understanding of how the car feels when approaching its limits. We live in the playstation generation and I think some people assume they are invincible in a car which as we all know is not true.
|