Speed 'not the main cause of crashes'

Speeding is only the seventh most-frequent cause of road accidents, latest figures have revealed.

Inattention was the main cause, followed by failure to judge another driver’s path or speed, according to British Department for Transport statistics released by the Safe Speed campaign group.

Based on data from police forces, the figures also showed that more accidents were caused by motorists looking but not seeing, drivers being careless and drivers failing to look than by excessive speed.

For accident cause purposes, “excessive speed” includes both speed in excess of the speed limit and inappropriate speed for the conditions.

The Safe Speed group said that data from one police force – Avon and Somerset - revealed that 70% of “excessive speed” instances took place within the speed limit.

Safe Speed campaign’s founder Paul Smith said: “When the main causes of accidents involve drivers failing to properly observe or react to road hazards, it should be obvious that the modern emphasis on speed-limit enforcement by camera risks increasing these common accident types, as precious and vital driver attention is diverted to the speedometer, speed limits and the risk of speed enforcement operations.”

He went on: “The authorities must now acknowledge that ‘speed kills’ road safety policy backed with speed cameras is not benefiting road safety.

“Speed cameras could only save lives and reduce accidents if we had a significant population of accidents where normal motorists exceeding the speed limit caused or contributed to road accidents.

“These new figures confirm that we have very few accidents of this type. The policy is wasted on attempting to solve a problem that simply does not exist.”

According to the latest data, the most-frequent contributory factors to accidents are:

1. Inattention

2. Failure to judge other person’s path or speed

3. Looked but did not see

4. Behaviour – careless, thoughtless or reckless

5. Failed to look

6. Lack of judgment of own path

7. Excessive speed.