Driving over the speed limit

[tniuqs]

'JPINFV

So I guess we should ban young males from driving and everyone from driving at night.

No I think attitudes need adjusting, hence my application of the GIBBS HEADSLAP.

Oh, and which speed is safer, 65 or 80 MPH given the following conditions: Speed limit: 65. Speed of traffic:80-90 depending on lane of travel. Heck, that study didn't even look at the cause of accident, but the correlation of factors with fatality. I've yet to see a car going over the speed limit spontaneously crash and burn. Maintaining good situational awareness, proper buffer room, and using turn signals is much more important than speed. All the factors that contribute to fatalities don't mean a thing if you don't get into an accident.

Higher Speeds Drive Traffic Deaths Up

Fast Driving is an Emerging Safety Problem

Speed Kills / Speed Sells / Enforcement Needed

Speeding increases the likelihood and severity of a crash. The faster a vehicle is moving, the less time the driver has to react to a hazard, and for other road users to react to that vehicle. A speeding vehicle requires more time and distance to stop, and is harder to control. Speed is a factor in 30 per cent of fatal crashes and 12 per cent of all crashes.

As speed increases over 100 km/h, the fatality rate of vehicle occupants goes up exponentially. For example, the chances of being killed in a vehicle traveling at 120 km/h are four times higher than at 100 km/h. When a car crashes near 200 km/h the chances of survival are minimal.

Speed of impact is critical for pedestrians, the most vulnerable road users. A 1995 European Transport Safety Council report found that only five per cent of pedestrians died when struck by a vehicle at 32 km/h; fatalities increased to 85 per cent at 64 km/h.

Speed Kills

There is an ongoing debate in Canada about speed limits on major highways. Advocates of higher limits need only look across the border for proof that raising speed limits is a bad idea.

A recent study examined the impact of higher travel speeds on US rural interstates after the repeal in November 1995 of the national speed limit. Researchers found states that had increased their speed limits to 75 mph (120 km/h) experienced a shocking 38 per cent increase in deaths per million vehicle miles than expected, compared to deaths in those states that did not change their speed limits. States that increased speed limits to 70 mph (112 km/h) showed a 35 per cent increase in fatalities.

The US Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has tracked vehicle speeds on rural and urban interstates since 1987. Preliminary data for 2003 show the highest speeds the Institute has ever observed. In California, for example, the speed limit is 70 mph. However, the mean speed is 74. Well over two-thirds (69 per cent) of drivers go over 70 mph, and 19 per cent go faster than 80 mph.

As US speed limits have risen, statistics show an associated increase in lives lost. The Canada Safety Council seriously questions why any jurisdiction in Canada would choose to follow this lead.

Speed Sells

High performance is the mantra of today's automotive manufacturers. From 1980 to 2000 the average horsepower-to-weight ratio, a key measure of performance, increased by over 50 per cent. In the 2000 model year, six per cent of vehicles had turbocharged engines, the highest percentage ever.

Ads show vehicles racing and swerving on miraculously empty roads, chasing or being chased, and performing daredevil stunts. Routine disclaimers that once warned the unwary consumer to drive safely or obey speed limits have all but disappeared.

Such lifestyle advertising subliminally encourages drivers to break the law by speeding and driving recklessly. The impact of that message is powerful. In recent years, street racing has become a deadly fad in Canadian cities. However, young speedsters are only part of a much larger problem. Speeding has become widely accepted by Canadian drivers. 'Everybody does it' is a common excuse for breaking the speed limit.

Commercials that glamorize excessive speeding promote unacceptable driver attitudes and behaviours. They also violate the Canadian Code of Advertising, which states that advertisements must not 'depict situations that might encourage unsafe or dangerous practices or acts.' To file an official complaint, contact Advertising Standards Canada . Please send a copy of your complaint to the Canada Safety Council.

<snip> Enforcement.

Edited April 30, 2009 by tniuqs

[mobey]

So I guess we should ban young males from driving and everyone from driving at night.

Oh, and which speed is safer, 65 or 80 MPH given the following conditions: Speed limit: 65. Speed of traffic:80-90 depending on lane of travel.

We are talking about a ban??

I definatly share your view on going with the flow of traffic however. Those idiots doing 20K under the speed of traffic are being downright reckless!

[tniuqs]

In the research I have read from the Alberta Research Council for Trauma a Dr. Francescutti believes and he can prove that driving faster than 55 mph or 90 kms per hour at night, the vast majority of the poulation is out driving their headlights and reaction braking distances.

Besides its Greener.

Mobey you make a good point:

Those idiots doing 20K under the speed of traffic are being downright reckless!

I would hazard a guess that the "blue hair" behind the wheel is driving in those cases, but that is another topic in itself.

cheers

[spenac]

I think only idiots drive like idiots.

Idiots do not understand that they are driving a top heavy roll over waiting to happen, long distance braking brick, that is structurally not going to protect anyone in the patient compartment.

If they don't slow down with a gentle word they get education with an IV bag upside the head. If they do it again they are reported. To many join EMS so they can play race car driver. Time to grow up research has proved the few seconds saved going fast do not affect patient outcomes the majority of the time.

[JPINFV]

Meh, if the Canadian Safety Council wants to have any sort of authority, then it should cite it's studies and not some random "A 19XX study showed" bull crud.

Oh, and this is supposedly about safety, not about being green.

[tniuqs]

JPINFV

Meh, if the Canadian Safety Council wants to have any sort of authority, then it should cite it's studies and not some random "A 19XX study showed" bull crud.

I guess thats my fault, sorry I sniped the footnotes and studies for brevity, the conclusions are extrapolated from Stats Canada, US Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and European Transport Safety Council and applied logic.

Oh, and this is supposedly about safety, not about being green.

spenac

Time to grow up research has proved the few seconds saved going fast do not affect patient outcomes the majority of the time.

Agreed ... Safety is an Attitude.

[2wheelinemt]

this one driver would drive so fast so crazy that we would be thrown around including our equipment. we would as him to slow down and never would. i would even try reporting him, but nothing worked. one day we were driving so fast a car pulled out in front of us and my equipment and myself went flying across the back of the rig. smashing my head and shoulder. i received a concussion and dislocated my shoulder and my good ems watch that was given to me for my 10 yr anniv was broken. you think he slowed down? not even the officers that had to explain why we where hurt made him slow down. i became an ems officer and he was the first order of business. slow down or stop driving. he stopped driving!!!.

i don't like driving, to many things to go wrong i'd rather take care of the pt. why we need to drive super fast i don't know. my brother drives the fire trucks and some have the engine cut out if you go too fast, he complains about that all the time. think he drives fast?

2wheelie

[Kiwiology]

Driving is dangerous enough at is it when contending with all the stupid people out there on the road; the cellphones, drunks, bad drivers, old people and foreigners without putting you in a big, shiney vehicle with lights and sirens ... did I mention stupid people?

The days of the "ambulance driver" in his big powerful Cadilac going like a bat out of hell are loooooong gone.

[JPINFV]

JPINFV

I guess thats my fault, sorry I sniped the footnotes and studies for brevity, the conclusions are extrapolated from Stats Canada, US Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and European Transport Safety Council and applied logic.

No, it's not your fault. I found the website through Google and it does the same thing that every other group pushing an agenda does. It cites a "study" but doesn't actually provide a citation.

Edited May 1, 2009 by JPINFV

[croaker260]

I assume code 3 means lights + sirens etc (we call that "priority 1" here but everyone is different).

I feel like driving slower than the flow of traffic (as "at the speed limit" usually is) while also using lights + sirens is a dangerous situation. You really don't want cars passing you when you're traveling like this. If you are going to drive the speed limit, just turn the lights + sirens off!

I guess I'm not surprised, but I am a bit dismayed at how everyone wants to be such a strong supporter of "going the speed limit all the time," "speeding is dangerous and illegal" blah blah. Be honest. I will guarantee you all that you drive faster than the speed limit, in the ambulance, on a regular basis. I'm not talking about recklessly dangerous driving, but definitely over posted speed limits. I think anyone who says they observe the posted limits ALL the time is either 97 years old, or lying. It seems like people on here love to take the high road so often, and post as if they never do anything wrong, lazy, or something that may be conceived as either of those two. Lets be real here. You speed.

I think you misunderstand my statement, Our policy allows us to exceed the limit by 15. Our training teaches the new medics that in the big top heavy ambulances, weaving in and out of heavy traffic, going at 15 over is counter productive to good patient care in the back.

Which is more important? Getting there 15-30 seconds earlier, or taking care of the patient while transporting?

You will also notice I said SURFACE roads, as in not (major) HIGHWAYS or INTERSTATES. Surface roads are stop lighted, stop signed, speed bumped, with Medians, round a bouts, and other "traffic control" designs. In these cases the acceleration to get up to the 15 MPH over max, as well as the extra breaking, plus the extra force inturning, just isnt good sense when you have 1-4 poorly restrained passengers in a non-crash worthy box well above the center of gravity, all the well trying to do multiple tasks, many of wich require some degree of finese...

Its not about the "High Road" ...its about common sense. Do I need to make my statement clearer?

Edited May 1, 2009 by croaker260