Crunching numbers

Speeding drivers have become blasé

'...speeding is a factor in 29 per cent of fatal accidents'.

To paraphrase the old, sick joke, it's not the speeding so much as coming to a halt very quickly which is the main factor.

So it's 29%. Not 28% or a more rounded 30%, but 29%. And 'speeding' was a factor. I wonder to what extent that the other factors that account for the other 71% were more, or less responsible for the actual accident within this reduced % than the 'speeding'?

I also wonder on other things, such as how one is supposed to stay within 20% of 20mph as a degree of arc of a speedo that goes to 150mph (on my car, about 3mm) and still look at the road.

It's bad driving that kills, and speeding is but a part. Shame almost all efforts still seem targeted at this aspect to the near exclusion of all others such as stopping distances, lane hopping, mobile chatting, etc.

But then machines that measure numbers and issue fines don't police such things, and nor do the Gatsos they like to commission from their Westminster bunkers.

I wouldn't treat a speeding ticket with irritation as the law is the law, but I certainly would treat those who use it as an excuse for failings elsewhere with the contempt they deserve.