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International road safety experts are calling for all vehicles to be fitted with speed warning devices, and drivers who exceed the speed limit may find their accelerators disabled by devices that are being considered in Australia.
According to the experts "Driving too fast causes 1.25 million road traffic deaths a year globally, and is a major contributor to the 6.9 per cent increase in deaths on Australian roads to 1275 in the year ending August 31."
The road safety experts called for all European vehicles to be fitted with Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) devices. These use speed sign recognition and satellite information to warn drivers with sounds or message if they exceed the limit.
The council launched a campaign on YouTube to build support for ISA, saying it had a huge potential to save lives.
Some devices, which have already been integrated into some new models of Ford cars, have an override function that can stop speeding drivers from using the accelerator until they return to the speed limit.
Anyone want this fitted to their car? I can see problems...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by jelizondo on Tuesday October 04 2016, @03:55PM
It bothers me that they have no statistics to justify their move and just go on piling on the citizenry stupid laws.
From the World Health Organization [who.int] (Warning requires Javascript) we can see that speed limits are the only variable in traffic deaths: Germany, 4.3; Australia, 5.4 in road deaths per 100,000 inhabitants; but you get the UK with 2.9.
Some counties, like Spain, are debating raising the limit (currently 110 km/h) to 130 km/h because newer cars are much safer than they were when the speed limits were originally imposed. Death rate in Spain? 3.7
Road conditions, weather and driver training are important variables that are never addressed; just lowering or enforcing the speed limit is not the only answer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 04 2016, @05:45PM
you get the UK with 2.9.
Where I live (in the UK) traffic is slower than it was when horse drawn, but the local council
has spent a small fortune putting up 20MPH speed limit signs everywhere.
The only people exceeding 20MPH are on motorbikes, and it is highly unlikely that they will
take any more notice of the limit than they did of the previous 30MPH limit.
In short, the reason for the low number of accidents is that the traffic can't bloody move
- stationary vehicles cause very few accidents.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 04 2016, @10:22PM
Limit for cars in Spain is 120 for highways (streets 50, and other roads 90 or 100). The 130 proposal is dead in the water for now, mostly because the conditions will not last. And speed tickets make money.
Road conditions matters a lot. Spain ones are going to crap since the crisis. Cars are also getting older... same reason, the good "new" (then) ones were bought just before the crisis (bubble money) and they will not be easily replaced now.
Emergency response time and medical care also mater, faster (helicopters and so on) and skills can help a lot. At least while Spain can pay for both that should stay (serious tries to privatice and monetize health).
Oh, also, IIRC each country has a different time limit. In some countries if you die <=24h after the accident, you count as road kill. In others the limit is 48h, etc.