Rural Speed Limits May Be Reduced

Rural Speed Limits May Be Reduced

A new Ropes plan has expansive that speed limits on most single - carriageway roads in rural areas could be cut from 60mph to 50mph in an endeavor to reduce the digit of car accidents and deaths.
Jim Fitzpatrick, the road safety minister noted that figures suggested a road accident was most likely to happen on rural parts of the road network, upon most of which the civic speed limit of 60mph applies.
Dangerous roads
Great Britain had one of the best road safety records in the world, but this has slipped in recent senility. In 2007, well-qualified were 2, 946 deaths and 30, 000 serious personal injuries on the roads. 29 % of these collisions were due to suggested speeding. The Domination is catch a consultation on the plan, which is likely to be intensely opposed.
The harbinger of the AA, Edmund Majesty, will appropriate Mr Fitzpatrick and Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon to debate the matter, but pointed out that a swathe lessening of speed limits would not make roads safer, inured that many accidents on rural roads involved only one car.
“It will not solve the problem – you have to look at the detail a dinky closer. Almost every weekend we make out these solo car accidents. They ' re zot to do with the speed limit. They ' re to do with inexperienced drivers driving recklessly. For a girlhood of reckless drivers, the rest are punished. A shroud contraction could lead to some roads having a lower speed limit than necessary. That could lead to dangerous overtaking. The best speed limits are those motorists account and conjecture, ” he oral.
Local authorities have the power to impose subordinate speed limits, he other. This is a thought that is also supported by The Fit-out for British Drivers, who moot the weight should be shifted from speeding to driving habits.
They have suggested that police patrols should be released to trouble over dangerous or bad drivers, whether they are speeding or not – rather than spending their life span motion after speeding vehicles that oftentimes represent no pest.
The ABD aggrandized that the Government’s research suggests that oftentimes when speed is blamed for a car accident, it is really just bad driving. For offer, accidents caused by ‘failure to assessor other person’s alley or speed’ are noted in the report.
The plan however, spoken this theory was wacky: “It is utter rubbish to class this as a ‘speed related accident’. The situation here is one person failure to critic the path or speed of a second vehicle – which is not to say that the second vehicle is travelling at an adverse or illegal speed. It is all told a failure to contemplate correctly on the constituent of the first festive occasion. ”
A Department for Transport spokeswoman vocal: “This is being looked at, but no decisions have been taken. ”
Shadow Transport Secretary Theresa Villiers verbal: “Rather than across the board reductions in the speed limit that hit the most responsible drivers, we accredit a intendment to make our roads safer needs to target problem drivers. ”