Rural Speed Limits May Be Reduced

Rural Speed Limits May Be Reduced

A new Management plan has naked that speed limits on most single - carriageway roads in rural areas could be cut from 60mph to 50mph in an pursuit to reduce the amount of car accidents and deaths.
Jim Fitzpatrick, the road safety minister noted that figures suggested a road accident was most likely to materialize on rural parts of the road network, upon most of which the national 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 years. In 2007, learned were 2, 946 deaths and 30, 000 serious personal injuries on the roads. 29 % of these collisions were due to suggested speeding. The Curb is share a consultation on the plan, which is likely to be incredibly opposed.
The pacesetter of the AA, Edmund Baron, will suitable Mr Fitzpatrick and Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon to confabulate the matter, but pointed out that a decorate reduction of speed limits would not make roads safer, given that many accidents on rural roads involved only one car.
“It will not solve the problem – you have to look at the detail a peanut closer. Nearly every weekend we sight these solo car accidents. They ' re zot to do with the speed limit. They ' re to do with inexperienced drivers driving recklessly. For a greenness of reckless drivers, the rest are punished. A drape decrease 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 respect and credit, ” he uttered.
Local authorities have the power to impose subordinate speed limits, he deeper. This is a thought that is also supported by The Passel for British Drivers, who dissertate the priority should be shifted from speeding to driving habits.
They have suggested that police patrols should be released to application over dangerous or bad drivers, whether they are speeding or not – somewhat than spending their month bag after speeding vehicles that oftentimes represent no tribulation.
The ABD new that the Government’s research suggests that much when speed is blamed for a car accident, it is really just bad driving. For mention, accidents caused by ‘failure to appraiser other person’s passageway or speed’ are noted in the report.
The organization however, vocal this theory was laughable: “It is utter nonsense to class this as a ‘speed related accident’. The situation here is one person omission to appraiser the path or speed of a second vehicle – which is not to say that the second vehicle is travelling at an ill-starred or illegal speed. It is utterly a failure to read correctly on the installment of the first function. ”
A Department for Transport spokeswoman uttered: “This is being looked at, but no decisions have been taken. ”
Shadow Transport Secretary Theresa Villiers vocal: “Rather than across the board reductions in the speed limit that hit the most responsible drivers, we credit a plot to make our roads safer needs to target problem drivers. ”