Joined: Aug 02, 2006
Posts: 291
Location: McLean, VA, USA
Posted:
Mon Mar 19, 2007 1:58 am
Popular belief seems to be just that - Speed kills! With the meaning - higher than speed limit speed kills. And the popular remedy to road dangers is - Slow down stupid! That's how many homegrown defensive driving classes have it. However, most experts in the field and almost anybody who takes time to seriously think about the issue come to the conclusion that speed per se is not the cause of deadly accidents, i.e. speed does not kill.
How this could be possible? And who is right? Since I did some serious thinking about driving, I came to the conclusion that speed does not kill. Now you are going to prove me wrong with all the examples of horrible high-speed crashes, right? But wait, I can tell you that yes, speed sort of does kill, too.
Isn’t it a paradox? How is it possible? Aren’t I crazy making two conflicting statements in just one paragraph? Not really. It all depends on perspective. Let me give you an analogy to illustrate the point. If someone shoots somebody, who/what kills in this case? Bullet? Gun? The person who pulled the trigger?
One can argue any of those answers are true. However, two entities stand out - the bullet and the killer. The bullet does the actual job of killing - breaks the bones, destroys the veins, muscles, organs, and brain cells. The killer prepares and executes the murder by pulling the trigger. His decisions are the root cause of the murder.
And the law recognizes this in every jurisdiction on the planet Earth - nobody prosecutes bullets, prosecution is geared towards murderers. And what is the role of the gun? Hmmm - a middleman! Can we say that gun kills? Sort of. It has its role in the process, no doubt, but this role is far from decisive.
Now let’s look at the car accident. What kills you, what is doing the actual job of killing? Surprisingly, in most cases it is your beloved car! Its parts crash your bones and tear your flesh. Can we say car kills? Yes, to the same extent that we can say bullet kills, kitchen knife kills, axe kills, and baseball bat kills... This does not help us a tiny bit in reducing the murder rate or the accident death rate, however.
Why? Because this does not address the root of the problem – what caused the car to kill you? If you follow my logic, you should not have any trouble answering this question - driver’s decisions do. And what is the role of speed? To be a middleman, exactly as a gun! Can we reduce the accident death rate targeting a middleman? I really doubt.
Last edited by Misha on Thu Jul 12, 2007 11:00 am; edited 1 time in total
Of course "speed is a factor" in every crash. You simply can't have one otherwise. But that doesn't stop the police trying to make an absurd and arbitrary distinction in order to justify equally arbitrary speed limits applying to vastly differing vehicle and road conditions.
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