Damn Damn Damn Damn

**White trash** · 10th March 2004, 14:42

Indo, come back man!

That was funny!

Where's he gone then?

**aff-man** · 10th March 2004, 14:42

Well abuse the opinion not the person man ,geez

**Lou Girardin** · 10th March 2004, 16:05

Goebbels said, "if the lie is big enough and you repeat it often enough, people will believe it".
Indo believes it.
Lou

**aff-man** · 10th March 2004, 16:12

hmmmmmmmmmmmmm

**spudchucka** · 10th March 2004, 16:23

Originally Posted by speedpro

Indo seems to have confused speed and danger or is assuming that the two are synonomous. If some dweeb crossed the centre line but was only doing 80K and managed to wipe me out I wouldn't think "gee I'm glad the twit was only doing 80k". If both drivers are on their side of the road then irrespective of how fast they are travelling they cannot have a head-on crash. It's perfectly reasonable however to predict that at higher speeds the possibility of crossing into the other lane increases due to things like inability to control the vehicle at the higher speed. The problem in this instance may not be the "higher speed" but the "inability to control". I personally think that a lot of NZ drivers have an "inability to control" in some very normal circumstances.

The Police and LTSA do focus on speed in their statistics and reporting. Case in point a while ago was a head-on crash somewhere in Canterbury. The notice about the accident made quite a point about one or both of the drivers exceeding the speed limit and that the Police "suspected" that one of the vehicles was on the wrong side of the road. Well gosh darn - they had a head-on crash, how the hell could they do that without one, or both, of them not being entirely within their lane.

Its simple physics. Speed is a factor in the net damage caused in a crash, its so obvious. Whether speed caused the crash is irrelevant. Speed is only dangerous in so much as it promotes injury in the event of a crash and increases stopping distances.

Can anyone actually stand up and say that isn't true???

**Two Smoker** · 10th March 2004, 16:26

Originally Posted by spudchucka

Its simple physics. Speed is a factor in the net damage caused in a crash, its so obvious. Whether speed caused the crash is irrelevant. Speed is only dangerous in so much as it promotes injury in the event of a crash and increases stopping distances.

Can anyone actually stand up and say that isn't true???

I can stand up and say that is true! I think rather than targeting speed, how about the police target incompetent drivers.....

**SPman** · 10th March 2004, 16:37

Originally Posted by Two Smoker

I can stand up and say that is true! I think rather than targeting speed, how about the police target incompetent drivers.....

Speed is a "magnifier" .It takes all your actions nearer the knife edge so that its easier to fuck up, when you fuck up at higher speeds, you have less time to react and if you hit something, the forces involved are much higher.
Thats why the police target it. They generally have no way of telling a competent driver from an incompetent driver in a pure speed situation. Half the drivers on the road are incompetent at 80k let alone 100k +, but try and tell them that.

**Two Smoker** · 10th March 2004, 16:42

Originally Posted by SPman

Speed is a "magnifier" .It takes all your actions nearer the knife edge so that its easier to fuck up, when you fuck up at higher speeds, you have less time to react and if you hit something, the forces involved are much higher.
Thats why the police target it. They generally have no way of telling a competent driver from an incompetent driver in a pure speed situation. Half the drivers on the road are incompetent at 80k let alone 100k +, but try and tell them that.

Yea that is true, hhhmmmmm, is there anyway to get incompetent drivers off the road? How about driver testing that is far harder than the current licencing system?

**spudchucka** · 10th March 2004, 16:54

Originally Posted by Two Smoker

I can stand up and say that is true! I think rather than targeting speed, how about the police target incompetent drivers.....

Well actually they do, alot of incompetant drivers speed too as do criminals, gang members and drug dealers.

**speedpro** · 10th March 2004, 19:02

Originally Posted by spudchucka

Its simple physics. Speed is a factor in the net damage caused in a crash, its so obvious. Whether speed caused the crash is irrelevant. Speed is only dangerous in so much as it promotes injury in the event of a crash and increases stopping distances.

Can anyone actually stand up and say that isn't true???

I haven't EVER seen where anyone has ever said that in the event of an accident a higher speed will not possibly result in greater injury.

What I was getting at is that it is possible to go fast (faster than the legal limit anyway) without crashing. The reverse is true as well, just because a person never exceeds the posted limit does not preclude them from a crash. Even at or below the posted limit crashes still occur and people are still injured. I wonder what the LTSA would blame those crashes on??

**James Deuce** · 10th March 2004, 20:02

Originally Posted by speedpro

I wonder what the LTSA would blame those crashes on??

Inappropriate speed. I kid you not.

**SPman** · 10th March 2004, 20:07

Dont most crashes occur at or under the speed limit for the areas involved?

**speedpro** · 10th March 2004, 20:14

Originally Posted by SPman

Dont most crashes occur at or under the speed limit for the areas involved?

Logically then there should be encouragement to go faster than the speed limit in an effort to reduce crashes, presuming, like the LTSA does, that speed is the only relevant factor

. I'm willing to put the effort in on that one.

**spudchucka** · 10th March 2004, 20:29

Originally Posted by speedpro

Logically then there should be encouragement to go faster than the speed limit in an effort to reduce crashes, presuming, like the LTSA does, that speed is the only relevant factor

. I'm willing to put the effort in on that one.

If people bothered to read the stats / reports with both eyes open they would see that speed is not the only factor that causes crashes. It is however an aggravating factor that increases the risk of causing serious injury / death in the event of a crash.