Speed Kills….
But are we really sure…?
Actually, we’re not. Crash data is collected primarily by police, and most often it is general duties officers with no real crash investigation training who attend crashes. Investigation into crash causality is not a high priority for the officers who attend most crashes.
What’s not debatable is that it is very dangerous to drive at a speed excessive to the prevailing conditions, or beyond the driver’s or car’s ability. The determination of ‘excessive speed’ is quite complex, yet it is a decision drivers must consider continuously. It is over-simplistic to suggest that exceeding the posted limit is always ‘excessive’ and that never exceeding the limit isn’t.
The term ‘speed’ has itself become so demonised and semantically promiscuous that its use defies common sense. It is commonly used to mean both ‘speeding’ and ‘excessive speed’, making meaningful debate impossible.
In truth, all crashes are speed related … because cars that are stopped cannot crash. Speed is an intrinsic feature of transport.
Speeding implies driving faster than the posted limit. Whether or not this is actually dangerous depends on many factors, including whether the posted limits are appropriate.
The only term that relates directly to road safety is ‘excessive speed’, which means driving dangerously fast. Our regulators know this, but include in their definitions of ‘excessive speed’ such bizarre phenomena as ‘trucks jacknifing’ (actually caused by brake and steering imbalances, not excessive speed) plus a raft of non-expert opinion that predisposes those at the coalface of crash reporting to nominate ‘excessive speed’ and thus promote current statistical theory.
States of Shock
Victoria Queensland & WA road safety policies: disaster areas
At least three Australian states are failing to live up to their road regulators’ ‘steady as she goes, it’s all under control’ rhetoric.
Stop Police!
Why high-speed police pursuits have to stop
Every year there are more than 2000 police pursuits in NSW, Australia’s most populous state – more than 40 each week; more than six a day. They account for one per cent of the road toll. One in twelve of these chaotic, unpredictable events ends in a crash, but only one in eight happens because the driver is suspected of a criminal offence.
SUVs Getting Safer
4WDs remain a soft target, but the poor safety claims appear to lack substance, a new report claims
The Monash University Accident Research Centre (MUARC) has investigated the crash-involvement of 4WDs on Australian and New Zealand Roads up until 2003, and the findings pretty much repudiate claims that SUVs are merely battering rams with power steering and air conditioning. 4WDs have become dramatically safer, it seems.
KEY FINDING 1: “The increase in 4WD vehicles on the road does not seem to be associated with increases in the proportion of car drivers being killed in multi-vehicle crashes.”
In 1992, 4WD sales represented about 10 per cent of all new-vehicle sales. A decade later, in 2003, the proportion of 4WDs being sold had practically doubled, to almost 20 per cent. The report then examined the proportion of car drivers killed in multi-vehicle crashes in Victoria. They dropped from more than 60 per cent in 1992 to around 40 per cent in 2003. It seems the rise of the 4WD on Australian roads has not led to a tsunami of car drivers being killed. What has increased is the proportion of car drivers being killed in single-vehicle crashes – not a 4WD-related problem.
KEY FINDING 2: “Rollover crashes are a very important and very dangerous crash type for 4WD drivers.”
There’s no getting around it: 4WDs roll over more often than cars, and a rollover is a very bad event to be in. Using data from Vic, NSW, Qld, WA and NZ spanning the period 1999-2003, it transpires that 4WDs accounted for six per cent of seriously injured drivers. Yet they also accounted for 18 per cent of drivers seriously injured in rollovers. 4WDs accounted for just five per cent of fatally injured drivers, but represented 19 per cent of the drivers killed in rollovers. When you look at all reported crashes, 4WDs account for five per cent – but they also represent 11 per cent of rollovers. In short, 4WDs are twice as likely to roll over, three times more likely to seriously injure you in a rollover, and almost four times as likely to kill you in a rollover. The report also found there was “little to distinguish between the rollover rates of small, medium and large 4WDs”. Additionally, the rollover problem is significantly more serious on high-speed roads, as well as for young drivers.
KEY FINDING 3: “Over all crash types combined, large and medium 4WDs have good crashworthiness.”
This statement from the report underplays the reality of the findings. What was found was that large 4WDs had the best overall crashworthiness, followed by medium 4WDs.
The following table summarises the findings the crashworthiness rating quoted is the number of serious injuries per 100 crash-involved drivers (the bigger numbers represent the least crashworthy vehicles).
The Great Easter Egg Hunt
We’ve got a fantastic competition for you! The Easter Bunny has hopped around the Private Fleet site and hidden a load of easter eggs for you to find. Find one of these eggs and that will put you in the draw for $1,000 worth of hotel vouchers redeemable at locations around Australia & NZ (see www.stamford.com.au for details)
It’s simple enough – find an egg hiding at the bottom of one of the Private Fleet web pages, make a note of the special code you see next to the egg, return to this page & enter the code into the entry form below together with your details and you’re in the draw!
What Drives Your Car
There’s probably only one thing that all cars have in common, four road wheels. But exactly which wheels move the car along the road vary widely. ‘RWD’, ‘FWD’, ‘4WD’, and ‘AWD’ are all drive systems that make life confusing! Over the next couple of issues of The Private Fleet Newsletter we’ll explain the differences. This month we’ll look at front wheel drive (FWD) versus rear wheel drive (RWD) and next month we’ll look at four wheel drive and all wheel drive.
Rear Wheel Drive
E10 Furore
The E10 debate rages on. Last month we revealed in the Private Fleet Newsletter article that standard unleaded petrol is to be withdrawn from sale in NSW. It now seems likely that other States will soon follow suit.
Clearly this has hit the motorists’ nerve as we have received an unprecedented response from our readers.
Jim L. from Victoria wrote to the Office of Biofuels in NSW as follows:-
April Sales
Things are looking up! After all the doom and gloom of the past eighteen months which has had disastrous effects on many markets, including the auto industry, we can finally give you good news this month.
The official industry body, the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries in Canberra, has reported another record month. April sales are the second highest month on record. Sales have soared 27.3 per cent over the same month last year, and this follows on from a record month in March. Sales so far this year are twenty per cent ahead of 2009.
Where is your car made
Last month we revealed, amongst much consternation from our readers, that manufacturers and importers are not legally bound to state where a car is made.
We then conducted a short quiz on origins with some interesting results.
Rent Your Car For Cash
We have great news for you if you are looking for another way to make a bit of extra cash or save some money.
Drive My Car Rentals is an innovative new service that lets you reduce the cost of running your vehicle, offset depreciation or just make some spare cash by renting out your vehicle when it’s not being used.
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