Road Safety: Kill Your Speed, Not A Person

Laws governing drivers are often controversial, as one driver may be more skilful than others and less likely to make mistakes that will cause danger to other road users. This leads to the situation where a driver will say “I don’t see why I should be penalized because I’m a better driver than someone else”. To which the only reaction is: Sit down, shut up and deal with it.

This may be seen as an authoritarian response to a fair point, but the issue here is that a law must apply to everyone (within reason) in order to be in any way enforceable. If you happen to be really good at controlling a car even at high speeds, then pat yourself on the back and enjoy the adulation – but the fact is that in residential areas and other spots with high traffic, it is dangerous to drive above a certain speed.

We all like traveling at higher speeds. For one thing, it gets us where we are going in less time. But it does not take a scientist to recognize that a car traveling at 50 mph will do more damage to anything or anyone it hits than one traveling at 30. You can be as careful and as skilful as you like, but things happen in split seconds, and a line needs to be drawn somewhere.

Some countries have no speed restrictions on their motorways, highways or autobahns, and this can work well in practice, but there is a necessity to keep speeds to a reasonable level on roads that are not designed for high speeds.