Speeding – a huge problem in traffic safety?

Driving speed and especially speeding is the most important factor in traffic accidents – and traffic safety work. According to some estimates 20 - 40 % of road fatalities could be saved just by observing the speed limits. In Finnish calculations a fatal accident costs society 2.4 million €. Driving faster increases accident risk because: - The driver has less time to react when something unexpected occurs. - Laws of physics apply in vehicle movements. - It becomes more difficult to observe other road users and road environment. - In case of accident the consequences are more severe. - The effects of higher speeds can not be compensated. There are three effective means to reduce speeds 1. Structural changes in road environment, such as roundabout, humps etc., 2. Speed limiters in cars and 3. Increasing the volume of speed enforcement to much higher level. The drivers should feel that the likelihood of being apprehended for speeding is always present. The greatest potential in influencing the driving speeds lies in speed enforcement and especially in automatic camera enforcement. More effective enforcement is needed but without increase in police resources. New traffic legislation is needed. Following arguments need to be weighed in public: - Legal protection of suspected person vs. people’s right in safe traffic - Juridical condemnability of the offence vs. high risk of detection - Responsibility of driver vs. responsibility of the owner of the vehicle Perhaps speeding drivers should not be considered as ”criminals”. But due to the huge number of speeding drivers this phenomenon is the greatest problem in the fight against traffic deaths. Introduction Road traffic kills some 400 people every year in Finland. Finnish traffic safety target is set to year 2010, when no more than 250 should be killed by road traffic. Many traffic safety experts believe that this traffic safety goal can not be reached without lowering driving speeds. According to some estimates 20 - 40 % of road deaths could be saved just by observing the existing speed limits. In Finland one fatal accident is estimated to cost the society 2.4 million €. Speed management is the key problem in traffic safety. Other main areas are the problems related to being sober as a car driver and the using of seat belts. The relations between driving speed and traffic accidents are widely researched. Though the problems of high speeds are known the observance of the speed limits is low. Individual drivers have difficulties to understand the importance of not exceeding speed limits. High driving speeds cause big costs to society. Eventually the problem of speeding will be solved in the future by using speed restrictors in all cars. Around year 2025 the speed of all cars may be under the control of traffic centres. Meanwhile other measures like automatic speed enforcement will increase.