Soon, though, you know you'll hit terminal velocity. You seem to be picking up speed as you fall. You open your eyes and see the ground slowly getting closer. You feel yourself in free fall, hurtling toward Earth. Looking down, your heart leaps into your throat. You feel the tap on your leg that tells you it's time to jump. When you make that leap into the great unknown, though, you know you'll be glad it's strapped to your back, ready to float you safely back to Earth. Right now, before the jump, it feels more like a millstone than a best friend. The parachute on your back weighs heavily on your shoulders. Yet, there's one sound that you seem to hear above all others: the pounding of your racing heart. The wind rushing by the open bay drowns out all other sounds. Education should focus not only on drivers but also on parents and children.The engine of the plane rumbles loudly, but you seem to feel it more than hear it. Traffic calming measures and education to improve driver behaviour 5 are also an essential parts of road safety. Other factors that contribute to road related deaths and injuries include alcohol, tiredness, and poor driving skills. 9 It has called for limits to be “reasonable, consistent and above all, based on sound, established road safety principles.” 9Ĭertainly there is a danger in focusing solely on lower speed limits as a means of reducing accidents. Inappropriate limits, it argues, will mean that drivers will be more distracted as they focus their attention on the speedometer and not the road ahead. The association thinks that decisions about where to implement slower speed limits will be made on a political basis, resulting in inappropriate limits on some roads. The Association of British Drivers has, however, warned about the dangers of allowing local authorities to set their own 20 mph limits. Fewer than 5 people out of 10 supported the initiative when it was first introduced, but 8 out of 10 support it now. Graz, in Austria, adopted a 30 kph (18 mph) limit through most of the city, cutting serious casualties by over a quarter and dramatically reducing noise and air pollution. 8 In continental Europe the public response has been largely positive. Among viewers of a Carlton Television programme who responded to a survey, over 80% favoured a 20 mph limit on all residential roads in London. There are signs too that a policy of reduced urban speed limits would be acceptable to the public. For example, Havant Borough Council has imposed a 20 mph limit on 20 miles of road and has seen traffic accident casualties drop by a significant 40%. Research by local councils produces similar results. 7 There was no evidence that accidents increased on surrounding roads. 6 Government research showed that 20 mph zones reduced the incidence of traffic accidents by 60% and cut child pedestrian and child cyclist accidents by 67%, while overall vehicle speeds fell by an average 9.3 mph (14.9 kph). The chance of a pedestrian being seriously injured or killed if struck by a car is 45% if the car is travelling at 30 mph but only 5% at 20 mph. The evidence of increased pedestrian safety at 20 mph is strong. As a response to this situation organisations such as the Children's Play Council and the Pedestrian Association have been calling for a limit of 20 mph to replace the current 30 mph speed restriction in urban areas.Traffic accident casualties fall with lower speed limits 5ĭespite a fall in road traffic deaths of 36% from 1987 to 1997, the present level of mortality among pedestrians remains unacceptable. 3 And two thirds of all accidents in which people are killed or injured happen in areas with a 30 mph limit. 3 About 70% of motorists exceed the present 30 mph (48 kph) urban speed limit. 2 Lack of speed restrictions rather than increased exposure to traffic has been shown to account for the excess deaths among child pedestrians in the UK compared with other European countries such as France and the Netherlands. According to the Department of the Environment, Transport, and the Regions, inappropriate and excessive speed on the roads accounts for around 1200 deaths a year. Speed is a major factor in road accidents. 1 There is now a new weapon available to tackle this problem: since last year local authorities have had the power to impose 20 mph (32 kph) speed limits in urban areas. Britain has one of the worst child pedestrian casualty rates in Europe, with 140 children being killed on its roads each year. Attention is often focused on deaths on the road during holiday seasons, but deaths and injuries occur all year round. Road traffic accidents continue to pose a major threat to the health of children in the United Kingdom.
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