Speed kills...?

**MikeL** · 4th December 2003, 09:05

In today's news:

"A coroner's hearing into the deaths of three Korean students killed in a car crash in North Canterbury has revealed that wearing seatbelts could have saved the lives of some of the victims.

Coroner David Crerar says the two back seat passengers were not wearing belts and their fatal brain injuries were the result of being flung around inside the car as it flew through the air before crashing into a tree.

He says that although the driver was restrained by a seatbelt, he died from his injuries."

The driver who had only a restricted licence, was driving a car with worn tyres and incorrect tyre pressures, and had spent the day fishing followed by a meal immediately before driving, apparently failed to notice a bend. So what actually caused the accident?
(a) inexperience
(b) fatigue
(c) inattention/distraction
(d) worn tyres/faulty pressures
(e) a deceptive bend
(e) all the above
Now, slightly more tricky: what caused the deaths?
(a) all the above
(b) not wearing seatbelts (but the driver, who died, was wearing a belt!)
(c) the tree

No mention of speeding, so it is assumed the driver was at or under the limit. But surely if the car flew through the air it must have been travelling reasonably fast?? And, whatever the actual speed, if it had been say half that or two thirds, the deaths or even the accident itself may not have occurred.
So the official view seems to be that speed only kills when it exceeds a pre-determined limit regardless of other factors.
When can we expect to get a mature, intelligent and rational approach to road accidents in this country??

**aff-man** · 4th December 2003, 09:10

Yip if i don't see a 25km/h corner and hit it at say 40km/h in a 100km/h zone and fall off a mountain .Does that make speed a factor. I wonder what statisic this accident will be accredited to????

**Jackrat** · 4th December 2003, 09:23

It was obviously the trees fault.

**riffer** · 4th December 2003, 09:28

When can we expect to get a mature, intelligent and rational approach to road accidents in this country??

Probably about the same time that we get a mature, intelligent and rational approach to driving in this country.

**bluninja** · 4th December 2003, 09:43

Thing is that speed (well speed of deceleration really) was a factor in their deaths; it WASN'T the causal factor of the accident. If I drive past a school at home time and some excited child runs straight out into my path such that I have no chance to brake, then my speed will be a deciding factor in whether they live or die, or the extent of their injuries.

So should everyone drive at 30 mph max like in the Bahamas? Aparrently they have few accidents and no road deaths.

Perhaps the LTSA should take a few months in the Bahamas to learn about this. Probably would cost less than crashing adverts and scratch cards.

TTFN

**Jackrat** · 4th December 2003, 11:03

Seriously I think that crash was a result of inexperence on NZ roads,which comes back to another subject that comes up quite often on this site,what killed em, was the sudden stop of course.
I read somewhere that if the car stops at say 30km the impact on the passengers is about 90kms,If this is correct,seat belts where not going to do any good anyway.I think it really comes back to that other subject.Again

**James Deuce** · 4th December 2003, 15:13

Saw the pictures on telly and it flew through the air because there was quite a drop off next to the road.

**Motoracer** · 4th December 2003, 15:30

Originally posted by bluninja
So should everyone drive at 30 mph max like in the Bahamas? Aparrently they have few accidents and no road deaths. Perhaps the LTSA should take a few months in the Bahamas to learn about this. Probably would cost less than crashing adverts and scratch cards.

Do you mean on 30mph on the motorway aswell?? That would be far too painfull and it could end up being costly to some if not most businesses.

The limit is 30mph (50kmph) over here on most roads anyway but that doesn't mean that crashes (some fatal) aren't happening in these areas with the 50 kmph limit.

**SPman** · 4th December 2003, 23:04

Of course speed kills. If the vehicle wasnt moving (travelling at a speed of some sort) it wouldnt have crashed!

(well that sort of logic works for the LTSA)

**James Deuce** · 5th December 2003, 11:25

Originally posted by SPman
Of course speed kills. If the vehicle wasnt moving (travelling at a speed of some sort) it wouldnt have crashed!

(well that sort of logic works for the LTSA)

And of course speed is relative, so if the LTSA turned the roading infrastructure into big conveyor belts none of us would ever speed relative to the road and bikes would be unfeasable as they would just topple over.

There! Two birds killed with one stone!

JIm2

**Yarg** · 5th December 2003, 11:35

Who ever planted the tree is at fault.

GD

**merv** · 5th December 2003, 11:42

At least no-one seems to be blaming them for being Asian and Winston Peters doesn't seem to post on this forum.

Hell we could all just stay in bed and hope the sky doesn't fall down.

This country is getting too regulated and comments like the person who planted the tree is at fault sounds just like good old USA. Only the lawyers win. What can we do about this?

When are we going to say people should take responsibility for their own action instead of looking for someone or something to blame? Generally in the media these days CYF seem to get all the blame so maybe they had something to do with this.

**Hitcher** · 5th December 2003, 11:47

When can we expect to get a mature, intelligent and rational approach to road accidents in this country??

When can we expect to get (ditto) to anything in this country and to law making in particular?

Welcome to the age of the soundbite and kneejerk politically-correct responses. If people were prepared to take responsibility for their own actions and for the betterment of the communities in which they lived, then we wouldn't need half of these dumbarse laws we've seen rushed through recently -- like road laws, dog laws, drinking smoking swearing etc