Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Speeding is catching up to Drivers
Over the long weekend, the Alberta Sheriff’s Department and the Provincial RCMP doled out an astonishing 2,426 speeding tickets. Just a few days’ earlier Edmonton police handed out 1,123 tickets in a span of 24 hours! These numbers seem completely outrageous. It is easy to see that our roads are extremely dangerous by simply taking a drive across our city, or down our highways. It is good to see that enforcement agencies are cracking down on this problem, but they claim that awareness and education are still vital parts in getting our province to slow down.
One important statistic that could help raise awareness is that speeding does not actually save a noticeable amount of time. If we take a trip that is 20 miles long, when travelling at 60MPH it takes 20 minutes to reach your destination. Now when you increase the speed to 70MPH, in the same distance, you only arrive around 3 minutes sooner. Now this is without traffic or lights. If you take into account those factors, you may only be saving yourself a minute or two. Is that really worth the risk of a fine and demerits? Or that you are endangering yourself, anyone who might be in the car and the other innocent people on the road? Plus, if you are pulled over, you will end up losing those minutes you so recklessly managed to obtain by speeding.
Close to 80 drivers were caught exceeding the limits with speeds upwards of 50km/h! That means on the Yellowhead they would have been going at least 120km/h, on 170th it would have been around 110km/h, and on the outskirts of the Henday their speeds would have reached 160km/h! Now anyone of those speeds is enough to take a life. The data we have on the toll speeding takes on human life is also shocking. Forty percent of drivers killed in crashes where speed was a factor were aged 16 to 24. Speeding is increasing in people aged 45 or older than it is in those 45 and younger. Eighty percent of individuals killed in speed related collisions were speeding as well. All of this information is very troubling, seeing as the main demographic of people being killed in car crashes are my age. These could be my friends, or siblings.
Speeding decreases your reaction time, and increases the chance of serious injury or fatality to those involved. Until we have learned the devastating effect that this simple action has on our society we won’t be able to correct it. You can always pay back a fine, but you can never pay back a life you ended.
Links:
http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/roadsafety/tp-tp2436-rs200807-menu-158.htm
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/life/Police+Edmonton+area+speeders+hours/2469469/story.html
http://www.edmontonsun.com/news/edmonton/2010/03/31/13430846.html
http://www.modot.org/northeast/SpeedChart.htm
One important statistic that could help raise awareness is that speeding does not actually save a noticeable amount of time. If we take a trip that is 20 miles long, when travelling at 60MPH it takes 20 minutes to reach your destination. Now when you increase the speed to 70MPH, in the same distance, you only arrive around 3 minutes sooner. Now this is without traffic or lights. If you take into account those factors, you may only be saving yourself a minute or two. Is that really worth the risk of a fine and demerits? Or that you are endangering yourself, anyone who might be in the car and the other innocent people on the road? Plus, if you are pulled over, you will end up losing those minutes you so recklessly managed to obtain by speeding.
Close to 80 drivers were caught exceeding the limits with speeds upwards of 50km/h! That means on the Yellowhead they would have been going at least 120km/h, on 170th it would have been around 110km/h, and on the outskirts of the Henday their speeds would have reached 160km/h! Now anyone of those speeds is enough to take a life. The data we have on the toll speeding takes on human life is also shocking. Forty percent of drivers killed in crashes where speed was a factor were aged 16 to 24. Speeding is increasing in people aged 45 or older than it is in those 45 and younger. Eighty percent of individuals killed in speed related collisions were speeding as well. All of this information is very troubling, seeing as the main demographic of people being killed in car crashes are my age. These could be my friends, or siblings.
Speeding decreases your reaction time, and increases the chance of serious injury or fatality to those involved. Until we have learned the devastating effect that this simple action has on our society we won’t be able to correct it. You can always pay back a fine, but you can never pay back a life you ended.
Links:
http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/roadsafety/tp-tp2436-rs200807-menu-158.htm
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/life/Police+Edmonton+area+speeders+hours/2469469/story.html
http://www.edmontonsun.com/news/edmonton/2010/03/31/13430846.html
http://www.modot.org/northeast/SpeedChart.htm
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