RAC General Manager Corporate Affairs, Will Golsby, said WA has a deadly culture of speeding which must be broken to stop serious and fatal crashes across our State.
“Last year, 195 Western Australians were killed on our roads, with one-third of those crashes being due to speeding,” Mr Golsby said.
“Many WA drivers are of the opinion that sitting a few kilometres over the speed limit is acceptable; however every time you exceed the speed limit, even by five kilometres per hour, you’re doubling your risk of being involved in a fatal or serious crash.”
Research has shown the risk of being killed or seriously injured in a crash doubles for every five km/h above 60km/h. A car travelling at 65 km/h is twice as likely to be involved in a serious crash as one travelling at 60 km/h; and for a car travelling at 70 km/h, the risk increases fourfold.
“Five kilometres per hour may not seem like a lot, but what drivers fail to remember is that increasing your speed increases the amount of time it takes to come to a complete stop once you brake,” Mr Golsby said.
“For instance, if a driver travelling at 60 kilometres per hour brakes suddenly, they will travel 38.9 metres before stopping. Another driver travelling at 65 kilometres per hour will travel 43.4 metres before stopping.
“If another car, or a pedestrian or cyclist, pulls out 40 metres ahead of both those drivers, the one travelling at 60 kilometres per hour will stop before hitting that car; however the car travelling at 65 kilometres per hour would hit the car at a speed of 30 kilometres per hour. [1]
“You’re in control of the speed you drive, but you’re not in control of the consequences of your decision.
“While speed cameras are a powerful deterrent, RAC is calling on WA drivers need to take more responsibility for their attitude towards speeding, so we can make a shift in our speeding culture.
“The mindset of WA drivers and what we deem as acceptable must change,” Mr Golsby said.
“Sitting a few kilometres over the speed limit is not acceptable. Speeding because you’re running late is not acceptable. And thinking a car crash ‘will never happen’ to you is definitely not acceptable.”
[1] Fletcher, Neville (2017), “The physics of speeding cars”, Australian Academy of Science, http://www.nova.org.au/technology-future/physics-speeding-cars accessed, 04/05/2017
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