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Despite the fact that it's nowhere near the biggest killer on the road, speeding remains the Department for Transport's number one obsession. Little, if anything, is said about other major problems such as the lack of driver education, bad road design, worn-out or unlit street furniture, driving drunk or drugged, damaged road surfaces, clueless pedestrians, cyclists with a finger on the self-destruct button and poorly maintained vehicles. More often than not, it's the old chestnut of cars travelling slightly faster than the speed limit which continues to dominate the DfT's road-safety activity. And it's usually at the expense of larger, nastier killers which seem to go virtually ignored.

By Mike Rutherford

26th October 2004

The latest advice from the DfT's THINK! campaign states: "Speeding is not just inconsiderate, it contributes to the 36,000 serious injuries and 3,000 deaths that occur on Britain's roads each year." Apart from these figures not being entirely accurate, it's plain unfair only to mention speeding motorists as the cause. Yes, some drivers and their excessive speeds are to blame for a minority of those accidents. But if we're going to have a statement from the authorities specifically pointing the finger at fast motorists, other contributing road users should also be named and shamed.

So these, in alphabetical order, include: bus drivers who bang heads, bang bridges and are bang out of order much of the time; coach drivers who should be blamed for those recent roll-over accidents; cyclists who jump red lights and motorcyclists who push their luck too far. Then there are taxi drivers; truckers for their well documented knack of causing motorway pile-ups; walkers, drunk or sober, who do a spectacular job in trying to get themselves killed; and, finally, white van men, who are surely among the most dangerous people on the road. And before you get too offended about my sweeping generalisations, I am talking about some, not all, members of these groups.

While the DfT can't conquer its obsession with speeding drivers, it might at last have gained one new skill: the ability to separate significant, harmful infringements from the insignificant and harmless. For decades I've been saying it's not speed per se that's the problem, but speed in inappropriate places, committed by those with inappropriate skills. This month, the Department launches a campaign claiming to "Focus on the dangers of driving at inappropriate speeds on rural roads". Only two problems with that: firstly, it should mention riders as well as drivers. And secondly, why only concentrate on the problem out of town? This affects all routes, not just rural roads.

By the New Year, a related THINK! campaign will be launched to explain, as if we didn't already know, the reasons for speed limits. This is no doubt planned with the best of intentions, but it doesn't explain why particular limits are chosen for certain stretches. So, while the DfT is paying for this publicity-cum-education blitz, can it also explain why it insists on dangerously low 40mph limits on often-empty eight-lane sections of the M25?

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