Don’t put the brakes on automatic car safety features

I couldn’t disagree more Dean – you seem to be advocating a move back to the pre-airbag, pre-ABS and pre-ESC days! Don’t tell me, you’d also like a ‘preventative’ spike on the steering wheel?! I really can’t understand why you’d go out of your way to buy older cars without safety systems that have been proven to reduce deaths on our roads. Whether you like it or not, it’s going to become harder to find used cars without this stuff fitted anyway.

You may think you’re such a good driver that you’ll never have an accident – and maybe you are an excellent driver – but on a peeing wet day on the motorway when a lorry sheds its load in front of you, I’d always want a car with ESC over one that doesn’t have it. Might actually be able dodge it then.

I do think driver safety gadgets shouldn’t stray so far into the ‘auto’ territory as to make drivers lazy or cocksure, but I’d like to think most people have enough common sense not to risk ‘leaving it to the car’ to do the accident avoidance. The driver is always the first line of defence; safety systems are only there as a back-up.

The one thing that does concern me is that the electrics are fallible in most modern cars – so what happens when these advanced safety systems fail? Hopefully the manufacturers will have planned for this eventuality and put stringent support systems in place to prevent drastic failures while driving, but you simply never know where electrics are concerned…

The speed limits outside schools here caused a permanent drop in crashes and fatalities at all times day and night (especially night) when they were introduced here. We have sleeping policemen – so suspension is wrecked if you speed – a very effective warning.to slow down.

The problem is the roads locally are narrow – made far narrower by the parked cars on both sides (there is no off street parking to speak of) the remaining road is too narrow to pass. So at night some-one walks into the road to cross it – a passing motorist racing a 30 mph sees them too late – causing very serious injuries or death. This happens during the day and school holidays too. I saw it happen before the sleeping policemen – and that was when the traffic was lighter.

If the pedestrian is hit at 20 mph the chances of survival is higher. I prefer the sleeping policemen as they are so effective at keeping all speed down all the time day and night.

Richard – I don’t doubt that there are are schools where it is right to have a 20 mph speed limit that applies at all times, but there is no reason why that needs to apply everywhere.

Automatic speed limiters would prevent drivers from exceeding the speed limit. Sleeping policemen may be effective with most cars, but large-wheeled 4×4 vehicles can negotiate them at higher speeds.

The law, with the assistance of speed cameras, sleeping policemen, the Highway Code, etc, fails to prevent a lot of people from exceeding speed limits. It would be good to have the limits reviewed and adjusted where necessary, taking account of accident statistics. Whether automatic speed limiters would reduce accidents remains to be seen but it seems archaic to expect the driver to constantly be taking their eyes off the road to monitor their speed.

Wavechange – it is possible to monitor speed pretty accurately by the engine noise without looking at the speedo – and by keeping your foot steady on the throttle.

I do have to wonder on the competence of drivers that can only judge their speed by staring at the speedo for so long they are a danger to other road users

You’re all missing a key point about speed limits – they’re a MAXIMUM legal speed, a guess by the authorities at the speed above which driving at this place will usually be dangerous, or has been proved dangerous by real incidents (both accidents and stupidity). The law also says that you should not drive faster than is safe under the current conditions – including road and visibility, braking distance (hence weather) and both foot and vehicle traffic.

Outside schools anytime there are kids around is much more hazardous than usual road conditions even if there are few children in sight. And at chuck-out time, even 5mph can be too fast for as long as it takes the mob to clear.

It’s ironic that the mass of cars waiting to pick up loved ones (presumably so they don’t have to work off the lovingly-acquired young burger fat) actually make the school zone safer – the massed packs of cars and kids make dangerous speeds impossible, whereas schools which enforce a ‘no cars waiting’ policy get more incidents in practice as speeding kids meet speeding cars.

In the end, it’s down to people – and there are always too many who are distracted, stupid, risk-taking or too in love with their own supposed invulnerability. I welcome anything which protects the most vulnerable. And 24/7 20mph zones are better in practice than part-time ones – drivers complain that they never know where they are (they don’t see the part-time signals) and it’s not their fault.