What is the bigger cause of accidents and death on the roads?

[d9f1c7]

Speed or bad driving?

[Davethedog]

Dan did I interpret this wrongly "if your driving at 40mph on a motorway the police ahve to decide if your driving dangerously"

Let me point out if you come across a car in the outside lane at 40mph and you take the middle lane and you undertake and there is a police car behind the pair of you, you will be pulled over and Mr/Mrs 40mph will be allowed to carry on.

Police may advise 40mph driver but they have no reason to charge him.

[mccfluff]

i don;t think you are neccesarily driving badly if you speed, illegally yes but it can be done safely.

inattentive drivers to me are the worst

[EvianBaby]

ooohhh, can we have a thread moaning about bad drivers? It's been a few days since I had a good whinge.

[ummmm]

Dave, I think you're wrong. There is a difference between under taking and passing.

My BIL failed his driving test for driving too slow.

[mccfluff]

i think you can get done for driving too slowly on a motorway - dangerous driving?

[LoftyLottie]

Speed in itself isn't particularly dangerous on empty roads!! Speed on roads with other road users is dangerous and bad driving. Slow driving can also be bad driving, but it doesn't usually result in death or injury of others - well it wouldn't if it weren't for the speedy drivers getting impatient with them. Speedy drivers are usually selfish and aggressive drivers in my opinion.

Any driver who is not aware of or has any tolerance for other drivers is a dangerous driver. Cars are killing machines.

[LoftyLottie]

I don't mean drivers that are sensible and drive at speeds which others might consider 'speedy' - I mean drivers who would drive at 80mph + in a 50mph zone.

[Davethedog]

If they were doing 40mph in the fast lane they would probably get pulled Just making a point.

Ummm undertaking unless in a slow moving traffic i.e your lane is faster than another is illegal.

There is a requirement that your supposed to keep up with traffic whithin the speed limit.

[flip_flop]

On the right roads and in the right conditions I'm an habitual speeder both in my car and on my bike.

But the key here is 'on the right roads and in the right conditions'. Somtimes 50mph on a motorway is too fast.

I consider myself to be a reasonably skilled motorcyclist - I have taken part in a number of advanced motorcycling courses run by the police, and have been riding bikes longer than I have been driving cars - and in the right conditions I can, and do, safely ride in excess of 100mph and beyond.

In the right conditions speed isn't necessarilly a bad or dangerous thing.

Bad driving (and speeding does not automatically mean you are driving badly) is a bigger threat.

[jno]

speeding alone is only a minor cause of deaths

http://www.telegraph....accidents-happen.html

but "too fast for the conditions" or "too fast to react properly" are also factors

[murraymints]

Dave ...there is NO such thing as a fast lane..it is an overtaking lane !!!

[jno]

overtaking (or "undertaking") is a manoeuvre involving leaving your lane to pass someone. If you pass them without changing lanes you're not overtaking. If there's someone in the outside lane doing 40 and you're doing 70 in the middle lane, just stay there, it's legal.

(And the driver in the outside lane might get pulled over for not keeping left.)

[nescio]

You also need to take into account the vehicle being driven at whatever speed.
Driving a small-engined car near the limit of its capability at, say, 80mph is far, far more dangerous than driving a powerful car at 80mph, which may be capable of twice that speed and will also have far more effective brakes, not to mention aerodynamics.

[danchip]

As has already been said if your driving in the slow lane and traffic in the other 2 lanes is travelling slower then you are passing not undertaking! If this was illegal then all the police would do was wait for a traffic jam and prosecute everyone in the slow lane for moving when the other 2 lanes were still jammed!

[Toureman]

Out of all the members posting in this thread only one so far has had any advanced training, what makes the rest of you with no advanced training think you know how to drive competently?

[gollysailor]

I was in NZ eight years ago and was stopped by a lawman and advised that I was driving too slowly in my hired motorhome and should always pull over to the left to allow others to overtake. I was doing 80kph on a dead straight road at the time, with nobody else on the road except the officer behind me, and he'd been following us for at least two miles. He was probably a member of the "stop a Pom and give him a lecture" squad, and clearly had nothing else to do.

[d9f1c7]

Steady flip-flop. The halo brigade will want to give a sound flogging over that one! 100mph heresy!

[MantaRay]

Primarily bad driving I'd say. Speed alone can't kill.

[TWR]

A few years ago I stopped on Hilton Park South, I was talking to another driver when all of a sudden a car came through the fence, he had been travelling South in the outside Lane ( M6) if you don't know, his rear Off/Side tyre blew out he said after his nerves eased off that he was doing 70mph, he has crossed with the hard shoulder 4 lanes, lucky bloke, just think about what I have just said!