13 January 2025
It's 30mph for a reason

The Kent & Medway Safety Camera Partnership is supporting the Department for Transport's (DfT) new speeding campaign which aims to make road users think logically about why speed limits are there - particularly the 30mph limit - and the potentially fatal consequences of not abiding by them. The strapline for the campaign is 'It's 30mph for a reason'.

The campaign includes a television advert featuring an eight year old girl talking directly to the audience and illustrating in a highly visual way the differences between hitting her whilst driving at 40mph versus hitting her at 30mph. The statistic has been taken from a DfT report and allows for the difference between hitting a child at 30mph and 40mph versus hitting an adult.

A poster, cinema adverts and a radio advert featuring the child's voice will support the television advert (All of this material can be seen on the DfT website).

The new campaign has been developed to counteract the widespread public perception that speeding is acceptable. Analysis of casualty statistics in great Britain has shown excessive speed to be a contributory factor in 12% of all injury crashes, 18% where there is a serious injury and 28% of all collisions which result in a fatality.

Drivers are still distinguishing between 'ordinary, safe speeding drivers' and 'dangerous speeding drivers' - of course the reality is that any type of speeding is illegal and potentially dangerous.

Despite all the warnings some people still seem to approve of speeding - many think they can handle it, it is necessary and some enjoy it. In another DfT study driving at 40mph in a 30mph zone was seen as more acceptable than dropping litter.

Rachel Moon Communications and Promotions Officer for the Partnership said: "We fully support this new campaign as it is extremely important that the public realise that the majority of crashes (two out of three) occur in 30mph and 40mph zones and that there is no such thing as 'safe speeding'. We want road users to really think about the speed they choose to travel at and that you are more likely to kill a pedestrian if you are driving at 40mph instead of 30mph."

Senior Road Safety Officer for Medway Council Su Negus added: "Any campaign that highlights the dangers of speeding in order to reduce the casualties on Medway's roads is welcome by us and we are fully supportive of it. It is so important that motorists think about how their speed could affect the severity of injuries not only to themselves but to other road users should they be involved in a crash."

Steve Horton Road Safety Operations Manager for Kent County Council said: "The message of this campaign is not new to any adult road user. For more than 10 years, new and experienced drivers will have been reminded constantly of the impact that speed has on the type of injures that result from road crashes. It is common sense that the faster you go the more energy you put into a crash, so the greater the damage will be. 30mph is the critical point, above which even small increases in speed can have dramatic consequences for any pedestrian hit."

Useful statistics
Attitudes to speeding
* 84% of people disapprove of speeding yet 69% do it.
* Over 70% of drivers in one study (Stradling) admitted to speeding and in other studies (Webster & Wells) the figure was 85%.
* TNS Survey results show what we really think of our partners' driving - and many of us are scared and angered when they speed.
* The study reveals that among passengers over 60% believe that driving too fast increases the chances that their partner will crash.
* 24% have felt angered by their significant other's speeding, which they think is 'irresponsible and stupid'.
* 20% are scared and concerned that they and the driver could be killed or injured.
* 14% worried about the safety of other road users
* 25% admit to pressing on an imaginary brake
* Only 1% wanted their partners to drive faster.Key statistics
* You are more likely to kill a pedestrian driving at 40mph than 30mph.
* If you hit a pedestrian while driving at 20mph the pedestrian has a 95% chance of survival.
* If you hit an adult pedestrian while driving at 30mph the survival chance is 80%. If you hit a pedestrian at 40mph the pedestrian's chances of dying rises to 90% (this lowers to 80% for a child).

General
* Every driver can make a difference just by slowing down a few miles per hour and observing speed limits.
* Excessive speed is a contributory factor in over 1,000 deaths and over 38,000 injuries every year.
* You are not as safe as you think - car drivers and passengers account for most road deaths.
* Nearly ten people die every day on Britain's roads.
* Two out of three crashes where people are killed or injured happen on roads where the speed limit is 40mph or less.
* Just over half (58%) of drivers break the speed limit (Vehicle Speeds Great Britain).
* The law of physics dictate that the higher the speed at impact, the more energy must be rapidly absorbed by hard metal, soft flesh and brittle bone.