"Speed Kills!" is a popular road safety slogan that we hear often. It's pretty simplistic and when I look around me on the highway I am convinced that drivers either don't believe it or live in a world of denial. Speed alone doesn't kill, but combine it with poor driving skills or a bad decision and it definitely makes a bad situation worse.
The Faster You Go, The More it Will Hurt
The most obvious drawback of speed is that the faster you go, the more likely some road user is going to get hurt or killed when things go wrong. Energy increases as the square of the speed and our bodies can only deal with sudden changes in energy to a certain extent. Exceed that threshold and we tend to come apart at the seams.
More Speed Means Less Time
The faster you go, the less time you have to deal with issues. These issues may be caused by you or they may be caused by another road user. Either way, if you are going too fast to react and recover, it's going to hurt someone.
Go With the Flow
"Go with the flow." Yes, I agree that is a good idea until the flow exceeds the speed limit. I like to obey the rules of the road and we have some drivers who are unsafe at speeds above the limit. In my opinion, those travelling about the limit are the cause of complaints about speed differentials being dangerous.
Inappropriate Speed Kills
Perhaps the next time the news tells you that a collision was a result of speed, think that it probably means inappropriate speed made a driving error unrecoverable.
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Personally i think, and said it before, speed does kill. People are being killed in collisions along Springfield Road in Kelowna. We love our home but dislike the people that feel it is speedway or their personal race track. We have radar on our street a least 4 or 5 times a week.
I talk to the police out there quite often and find out they catch drivers doing upwards of 120 km/h in a 50 km/h zone or any where from 70 to 95 on average . These are people that cut through from Black Mountain Joe Rich instead of Highway 33 because they can't travel as fast.
I had a conversation with our old Mayor Walter Grey about putting speed bumps on Springfield to slow people down like on Abbot Street. He said that they could'nt because its a main artery for fire and ambulance even though they slow down at intersections.
Something has to change because its worse now than ever. Maybe we could get the news media to stand with me and watch how many less than brilliant people use this street like it is a highway. Maybe with some stuff done on local news station other people would realize how much of a problem this really is and how dangerous it is.
I pushed for a patrolled cross walk on Springfield and Quigley ST even through the old Mayor, did not get action until i teamed up the late Bruce Stewartm principal of Quigley Elementary, because at the time my daughter could not get people to even stop even though it was a cross walk. She would stand there cars and drivers would just fly and not stop unless i stepped out in front of them.
Drivers in Kelowna must change their driving habits or people are going to die or spend a life of suffering over their injuries. SLOW DOWN PEOPLE!
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Speed Does Kill