Every Accident is One Too Many Every Accident is One ... - UNECE

Chapter 4
0
km/hr
One of the greatest potentials for improving road safety
lies in reducing speeds. The Road Safety Research Council
has calculated that if average actual speeds matched legal
speed limits, the result would be 100 fewer deaths and
1,500 fewer injuries.
%
100
50
60
Source: The Danish Road Safety Council
Figure 12. Small difference - great effect: In a situation where a
driver driving at 50 km/hr just manages to stop the car for a child
crossing the road, a driver driving at 60 km/hr would hit the child at
a speed of 44 km/hr.
Risk of death when hit
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 km/hr
Figure 13. Pedestrian risk of death when hit by a car: A pedestrian
has a risk of being killed of less than 5 per cent if hit by a car driving
at 30 km/hr or less. The risk of being killed increases rapidly at
greater speeds. At slightly more than 50 km/hr, the chance of
survival is 50 per cent.
The Danish Road Directorate regularly carries out surveys
of average speeds on Danish main roads. These surveys
show that we still face problems regarding compliance with
the speed limits - both on motorways, main roads, and
urban roads.
In the period to come, it is vital to create general public
appreciation and support for the need to reduce speeds on
Danish main roads, country roads, and urban roads. Of
course, such appreciation and support must also bring
about concrete action, so that even more road users
observe the speed limits in future.
It is particularly important to have drivers of heavy vehicles
observe all speed limits. Indeed, heavy vehicles are
involved in 25 per cent of all fatal road accidents. This does
not necessarily mean that the drivers of heavy vehicles are
responsible for such accidents; but it does clearly indicate
that road accidents involving heavy vehicles are almost
always serious. A reduction in speeds would reduce the
risk of accidents while also limiting their consequences.
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
-10
-20
-30
-40
-50
-12,5
Change in the number of accidents
-10,0
-7,5
All personal injuries
Serious personal injuries
Deaths
-5,0
-2,5
Reduction in speed, per cent
0
2,5
5,0
7,5
10,0
12,5
Increase in speed, per cent
Figure 14. Correlation between speeds and accidents: The number
of serious personal injuries drops by approximately 15 per cent if the
average speed on a given road drops by 5 per cent, e.g. from 50 km/
hr to 47.5 km/hr. The corresponding drop in the number of deaths
will be more than 20 per cent.
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