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There are dozens of studies out there identifying speeding as one of the major factors in car crashes. All over the world, collisions cause billions in damage each year, not to mention thousands of deaths and injuries.
All across the world, interested parties are doing their best to come up with a solution to this scourge. Given that speeding is a matter of personal choice, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has been trying to educate drivers about the hazards of this type of behavior.
A completely wrong approach, believes the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).
In response to a request for comments on “a proposed study of the effects of a driver education course covering vehicle speeds, laws, and the risks of speeding,” the IIHS pretty much said education programs on this matter are utterly useless. Instead, the NHTSA should invest more time and resources in “more promising speed management measures.”
IIHS cites a 2018 study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety that found the majority of Americans believe “driving 15 mph over the speed limit on freeways and 10 mph over the speed limit on residential streets are very or extremely dangerous.” Despite this, most of the participants admitted to doing exactly that.
Basically, IIHS says people know speeding is dangerous, but they choose to do so anyway, so trying to educate them on the matter is fruitless. It's pretty much like telling smokers cigarettes are unhealthy: everybody knows that, nobody cares.
Instead, insurers are saying it would be better to invest more in automated enforcement of speed limits, as well as giving automakers reasons to install speed alerts and even systems that would automatically slow down a car when a certain speed is exceeded.
“Speeding has been a major factor in more than a quarter of traffic fatalities for over 30 years, so it is important that NHTSA focus on countermeasures that are likely to succeed, rather than further investigating ones that have already proved ineffective,” said in a comment Jessica Cicchino, IIHS vice president for research.
A completely wrong approach, believes the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).
In response to a request for comments on “a proposed study of the effects of a driver education course covering vehicle speeds, laws, and the risks of speeding,” the IIHS pretty much said education programs on this matter are utterly useless. Instead, the NHTSA should invest more time and resources in “more promising speed management measures.”
IIHS cites a 2018 study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety that found the majority of Americans believe “driving 15 mph over the speed limit on freeways and 10 mph over the speed limit on residential streets are very or extremely dangerous.” Despite this, most of the participants admitted to doing exactly that.
Basically, IIHS says people know speeding is dangerous, but they choose to do so anyway, so trying to educate them on the matter is fruitless. It's pretty much like telling smokers cigarettes are unhealthy: everybody knows that, nobody cares.
Instead, insurers are saying it would be better to invest more in automated enforcement of speed limits, as well as giving automakers reasons to install speed alerts and even systems that would automatically slow down a car when a certain speed is exceeded.
“Speeding has been a major factor in more than a quarter of traffic fatalities for over 30 years, so it is important that NHTSA focus on countermeasures that are likely to succeed, rather than further investigating ones that have already proved ineffective,” said in a comment Jessica Cicchino, IIHS vice president for research.
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