Why speed matters?
Speed can be the difference between life and death. The speed a vehicle is travelling dictates whether or not a driver will be able to stop in time to avoid a crash and, if they can’t stop, the force of the impact when they crash.
Breaking the speed limit (or travelling too fast for conditions) is recorded by police at crash scenes as a contributory factor in around a third of all fatal crashes and a quarter of crashes resulting in serious injury.
However, it is important to remember that speed is always a contributory factor to a road crash. Whether or not a vehicle is judged to have been speeding, the fact it was involved in a collision means it was going too fast to have stopped in time.
Watch to find out why even small increases in speed matter
Fast moving traffic also creates unpleasant noise and air pollution, making our communities less safe and deterring people from walking and cycling.
