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Originally Posted by Xaccers
Speeding does not equal death/injury/accident, bad driving does.
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No, speeding does not equal death/injury/accident. However, it can mean that injuries (when accidents do occur) are more serious, and possibly life-threatening. It can also increase the impact of minor accidents whatever their cause (e.g. bad driving, or some sort of mechanical failure).
As an example I was nearly hit by a car last week because a car was speeding and overshot a red light by nearly 4 metres (I was crossing a pelican crossing and the green man was showing). I happened to be crossing the road, and the only reason I wasn't hit is I was able to leap onto the island in the middle of the road. Now, you could argue that was bad driving, and you'd be right. However, I heard (and saw) the skid start. I think that had he been obeying the 30 limit on that road, he should have stopped before the lights.
I actually agree, speeding itself is not the problem. It's merely a symptom of bad driving (not that I am saying all people who speed are bad drivers - I have friends who speed whom I consider to be very good drivers), but I think the police are in a no wine situation.
They have to be seen to be doing something, but to have an effect on bad driving, they would need to put far more officers on the road. This would lead to people complaing that the police should be going out to capture murderers and serious criminals, not victimising the motorist. Speeding (and overshooting red lights which is something else some Gatsos monitor) is relatively easy to monitor automatically with little outlay.
But the fact remains that whether or not speeding causes accidents, it can increase the chance of serious injury or death in the event of an accident. After all, you can be the best driver in the world, but if you doing >90 mph on a dual carriageway and some tw*t doing 50 doesn't notice you and enters your lane 40 feet in front of you, you won't have an awful lot of time to react, and assuming you hit him, you will probably cause at least one serious injury.