After 42 years of driving, and what must be nearly one million miles of motoring on two and four wheels, I have notched up my first speeding offence.
I have always been speed aware, particularly in built-up areas with low speed limits, so to be pictured by a camera at 37mph in a 30mph zone came as a surprise.
A momentary lapse of concentration and my brain telling me it was a 40mph limit – it switches back to 40mph further along the road – saw me passing the camera at 40mph on the button only to receive the bad news in the post a couple of days later.
I opted to attend a national speed awareness course for £90, rather than pay a £100 fine and take three points on my unblemished licence. It was money well spent!
I was expecting four dull hours of being lectured about being a naughty speeder but it was enjoyable, entertaining and educational, delivered in a serious, but fun, way that really helped get the message across.
It started with a photo quiz in which we had to work out the speed limit for various stretches of road and speed limits are for different types of highway, bearing in mind they vary if you are driving a van, lorry or towing.
I didn’t realise smart motorways reduce the speed limit to 40, 50 or 60mph to keeping traffic flowing miles further on by avoiding the traffic bunching. So when the speed limit drops to 50mph don’t question the fact there are no roadworks, accidents or such like. There is a genuine reason that’s out of sight.
Pay extra attention to signs
Speed limits often change near junctions so pay extra attention there and look for the ‘gateway’ limit signs each side of the road to show the speed change.
If you think a couple of miles per hour over the speed limit doesn’t really make a difference, you would have been amazed at a hard-hitting video… in every sense.
- A modern family car stopped from 30mph in 23 metres under emergency braking. A cardboard box, representing a pedestrian, was then placed where it had stopped.
- At 31mph the car hit the box at 8mph – at 35mph it was still travelling at 18mph.
- From 20mph, the car needed 12 metres to stop – at 25mph it hit the box at 15mph.
- Travelling at 50mph, the stopping distance was 70 metres – at 55mph it was travelling at 23mph when it hit the box.
- At 70mph, it took 90 metres to complete an emergency stop – at 80mph it was still travelling at 39mph.
- Between 30 and 40mph the risk of killing a person you hit soars from 7% to 31%.
Speed affects stopping, not arrival time!
Speed doesn’t really affect arrival time but it does impact on a car’s ability to stop. Double your speed and you quadruple your stopping distance… and that’s on a dry road.
Nationally, around 5% of accidents happen on motorways, about 33% on rural roads and some 63% on urban roads. In Norfolk, 70% are on rural roads. And 93% of accidents are down to driver or rider error.
So the message is very much know the limit, why it matters, how to stay in control and select a safe speed.
This educational speed awareness course also included knowing why speed creeps up, such a going downhill, and how to use second gear in a 20mph zone and third in a 30mph limit to help keep the speed down. You could use a speed limiter or cruise control, if fitted, but technology is just an aid to help control speed.
‘Funnel vision’ not ‘tunnel vision’
We also learned about the need for ‘funnel vision’ rather than ‘tunnel vision’ – being more aware of what is each side of the road, including road signs, and dropping back from the car in front when being ‘tailgated’ to increase your ‘safety bubble’. It means you don’t have to brake so hard to stop which could prevent the vehicle tailgating you shunting into your rear end.
Some of you will be saying I now sound like an anti-speeding zealot. So be it!
I paid the price of speeding but it was only £90 and four hours of my time. If I’d hit someone while speeding it could have cost them their life.
The prospect of having to live with that – for the victim’s and my own family and friends, as well as me – would be too high a price to pay.
Next time you’re following a car or motorcycle sticking to the speed limit, don’t get impatient and tailgate. Just consider that it could be me, or someone like me, who has done a speed awareness course and realises the value of their driving licence and the safety of other road-users.