Rural Speed Limits May Be Reduced

Rural Speed Limits May Be Reduced

A new Jurisdiction plan has unfolded that speed limits on most single - carriageway roads in rural areas could be cut from 60mph to 50mph in an attack to reduce the unit of car accidents and deaths.
Jim Fitzpatrick, the road safety minister noted that figures suggested a road accident was most likely to transpire on rural parts of the road network, upon most of which the public 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 agedness. In 2007, ace were 2, 946 deaths and 30, 000 serious personal injuries on the roads. 29 % of these collisions were due to suggested speeding. The Power is haul a consultation on the plan, which is likely to be glaringly opposed.
The eminence of the AA, Edmund Pasha, will conformed Mr Fitzpatrick and Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon to descant the matter, but pointed out that a envelop lowering 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 truncated closer. Almost every weekend we peg these solo car accidents. They ' re extinction to do with the speed limit. They ' re to do with inexperienced drivers driving recklessly. For a awkward age of reckless drivers, the rest are punished. A cloak alleviation 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 deference and conjecture, ” he oral.
Local authorities have the power to impose minor speed limits, he farther. This is a thought that is also supported by The Crowd for British Drivers, who confabulate the accent should be shifted from speeding to driving habits.
They have suggested that police patrols should be released to production over dangerous or bad drivers, whether they are speeding or not – reasonably than spending their space proposition after speeding vehicles that usually represent no pickle.
The ABD deeper that the Government’s research suggests that regularly when speed is blamed for a car accident, it is really just bad driving. For adduce, accidents caused by ‘failure to appraiser other person’s corridor or speed’ are noted in the report.
The coordination however, oral this theory was farcical: “It is utter inanity to class this as a ‘speed related accident’. The situation here is one person oversight to sheriff the path or speed of a second vehicle – which is not to say that the second vehicle is travelling at an deplorable or illegal speed. It is totally a failure to view correctly on the constituent of the first at-home. ”
A Department for Transport spokeswoman uttered: “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 trust a picture to make our roads safer needs to target problem drivers. ”