So if the Gardaí asked YOU how to stop road deaths, what would you tell them?

flazio

What are your suggestions for the fairest most equal way to police our roads and put a stop to unnecessary road deaths?

j1smithy

Clearly indicated speed cameras at known accident blackspots. More random checks on the countrys back roads. Continued awareness campaign about the dangers of drug driving and driving without sleep. Preventing people getting off on technicalities. Random checking of performance modifications to cars. If not indicated on insurance, car be crushed.

What I would reduce are the money generating exercises of speed cameras on motorways. Although incrediably excessive speed is an issue on these roads

Rowley Birkin QC

Simple, keep untested drivers off the road. Oh and make the test a lot better.

Fighting Irish

Theres so much to say its not even worth saying

CianRyan

Better driving tests, take the finnish one for example.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driving_licence_in_Finland

towel401

j1smithy wrote: »

Random checking of performance modifications to cars. If not indicated on insurance, car be crushed.

how does paying more insurance for a modified car stop anyone from getting killed?

j1smithy

towel401 wrote: »

how does paying more insurance for a modified car stop anyone from getting killed?

In my experience, from what i've experienced myself from driving over the past 4 years (although I've been carless for the past 6 months) Is the vast majority of modded cars, the souped up corsas etc their drivers are the most obnoxious w@nkers on the road. As insurance companies can tar all with the one brush I would think that pricing them off the roads would make the country safer

towel401

j1smithy wrote: »

In my experience, from what i've experienced myself from driving over the past 4 years (although I've been carless for the past 6 months) Is the vast majority of modded cars, the souped up corsas etc their drivers are the most obnoxious w@nkers on the road. As insurance companies can tar all with the one brush I would think that pricing them off the roads would make the country safer

insurance companies already have too much power to boss people around, and theres a fine line between legitimate car hobbyists and skangermobile drivers. insurance companies will price them all off the road. basically everyone who doesn't have a mundane family car with GPS speed limiter and kids in the back will be oppressed by the insurance companies once again

CianRyan

j1smithy wrote: »

In my experience, from what i've experienced myself

Heh:rolleyes:

But yeah, seriously, no.
What happens to the people that aren't compealy eejits who moddify their cars because they love doing it, then treat their car, other road users and the law with respect?
They'll be out of a hobby for no good reason.
Rubish idea, sorry mate, but it is.

randylonghorn

j1smithy wrote: »

In my experience, from what i've experienced myself from driving over the past 4 years (although I've been carless for the past 6 months) Is the vast majority of modded cars, the souped up corsas etc their drivers are the most obnoxious w@nkers on the road.

Even if true, and it isn't in many cases, then the problem is with the driver, not the car. Why crush the car when you could so easily crush the driver instead? :pac:

Seriously, turning a perfectly good car into scrap metal is not the way to do this.

j1smithy wrote: »

As insurance companies can tar all with the one brush I would think that pricing them off the roads would make the country safer

The insurance companies aren't the ones mandated to enforce the rules of the road or penalise offenders ... thank heavens, they would be even worse at it than the DoJ / courts / gardaí.


Couple of suggestions:

... Bring in an option to impound cars for short periods (e.g. a week / two weeks) as an alternative to or in addition to fines / points for less serious offences, at the court's discretion. Let people experience first hand what it would be like to be put off the road, have to use public transport, walk, etc.

... Option to fit mandatory speed regulators to cars for drivers caught speeding more than X mph above the limit. Caught bypassing the regulator = automatic 3 years loss of license. And actually random-check the damn things!

... Compulsory re-testing after a certain number of points have been accrued

... Improve actual driving test (as mentioned above)

... Introduce proper driver's ed as part of the curriculum

... Repeat DUI - give courts the power to seize and sell the car in addition to existing penalties, money to go towards a Victim's Fund for those whose life have been destroyed by drunken drivers.

Tragedy

Most road deaths seem to be country roads late at night/early in the morning.

Also another quite large proportion seem to involve trucks.

Why is my insurance €100 more in Dublin than if I lived in Kerry?

Maccattack

give everyone airplane tickets?

seriously though. The roads in Ireland are rubbish and cause a lot of accidents.

Driving from Cork to Dublin at night is a frightenning experience. Especially if its raining. The roads are so narrow and if a truck passes you, you shirt yourself.

A trip that would take an hour on a freeway takes 4 hours on Irish roads. So people get impatient and take whatever opportunity they can to overtake alorry or any other slow vehicle.

So whilst the gards and govt can expect people to drive safely. Emphasis should also be put on the provision of safer roads.

CianRyan

Re-do the theory test every few years?
As it stands right now, i'm scoring higher on the practice exams than both my parents, who have been driving for years.

I can see people being annoyed at that one as they like to just get it out of the way, but scrubbing up on it could be very usefull, especially as more and more new laws come out. They could go right over less informed drivers heads.

CianRyan

Tragedy wrote: »

Why is my insurance €100 more in Dublin than if I lived in Kerry?

Theft/vandle damage more than anything i'd say.

AugustusMaximus

Maccattack wrote: »

Driving from Cork to Dublin at night is a frightenning experience. Especially if its raining. The roads are so narrow and if a truck passes you, you shirt yourself.

The vast majority of this journey is on motorway and I can't ever imagine being overtaken by a truck.

seanybiker

flazio wrote: »

stop to unnecessary road deaths?

as opposed to necessary road deaths? Lol

spurious

Enforce the existing laws properly, without excuses.

donegalman1

Penalise drivers who hold back traffic on main roads either through selfishness or with slow moving vehicles, there by stopping the ongoing taking of chances to overtake or make up time..... drivers sitting on the white line doing 40mph with 10/12 cars behind on major roads should be penalised.

I think there is a law that you are supposed to make way if more than seven cars are held up behind you, but I have never heard of anyone being stopped or prosecuted for it. Agri vehicles seem to be able to start a parade whenever they like

AugustusMaximus

donegalman1 wrote: »

Penalise drivers who hold back traffic on main roads either through selfishness or with slow moving vehicles, there by stopping the ongoing taking of chances to overtake or make up time..... drivers sitting on the white line doing 40mph with 10/12 cars behind on major roads should be penalised.

I think there is a law that you are supposed to make way if more than seven cars are held up behind you, but I have never heard of anyone being stopped or prosecuted for it. Agri vehicles seem to be able to start a parade whenever they like

I've once heard of a tractor driver being brought to court for consistently holding up trains of drivers without attempting to leave them past.

From my expierience, most tractor drivers are aware of trains behind and do make a good deal of effort to leave people past. There are slow car drivers out there though who from my expierience do everything in their power to stop people from overtaking them while going well below the limit themselves.

Merrion

1. Raise the age at which you get your license to 21.
2. Ban LHD articulated lorries
3. Off-the road cycle lanes
4. Pedestrian paths on rural roads
5. Mandatory drink/drug testing in all driving accidents no matter how minor
6. Make sale of petrol to uninsured vehicles illegal.

None of them practical given the current economic situation, but all would reduce road deaths.

Davidth88

Good thread ! ...

Engineering.

If there is a road death , then make it manditory that the local council ( or the NRA if a N/M rd ) have to carry out an independant engineering survey of the road where it occured . These findings have to be made public , and remedial work has to be carried out within a fixed ( short ) period of time , and by remedial work I don't mean a stupid accident black spot sign.
Get those inter-urban dual carrageways finished NOW.

Education

Make it manditory that kids have road sense lessons at school.
You HAVE to have xx lessons with a qualified instructor before you can drive with anyone else , or take your test.
Clamp down on people driving with no licence ... hard . ( see below )

Enforcement

If you have no NCT , then your insurance is void ( un roadworthy car ).
If you have no licence , then your insurance is void.
If you have no insurance , 2 year ban , second offence prison
Widespead use of ANPR to enforce the above
Camaras should be very obvious ( painted yellow ).
Camaras outside schools to stop speeding , and also enforce the parking restrictions there
More patrols on the open roads , stop the total obsession with speeding and enforce other rules . Ie Garda should learn that hiding in the central reservation of a dual carrageway with a hairdrier is not only dangerous but achieves nothing ( a la Limerick Bypass )
Drink-driving , tighten up , and close the loopholes. It's stupid that people are told they can carry on driving because they need it for work or whatver. ( it happens ). Re-test after ban.

Thats just the start.

cyclopath2001

AugustusMaximus wrote: »

There are slow car drivers out there though who from my expierience do everything in their power to stop people from overtaking them while going well below the limit themselves.

By the same logic, ban on-road parking and single-occupant cars in areas of high congestion.

CreepingDeath

Anyone done for consistant or excessive speeding must have a GPS tracker installed in their car which monitors their speed for say 6 months with a 1 year ban if they haven't altered their behaviour accordingly.

milltown

Publish full details of all road fatalities.

We need to ditch the sentimentality to have a hope of stopping the carnage. If somebody dies on the road through their own stupidity, highlight it. It will be hard on the families of the departed to see all the details published and discussed but they should find some comfort in this saving another family having to go through the same.

Rather than trot out statistics saying that speed kills x number of people and drink driving kills y number, put names and faces to the stats. If somebody hits a wall or another car after having a few pints with their dinner, make it a matter of public record. Don't cry about what a tragedy it is and what a good father he was. A good father would have the sense to have a rock shandy and make it home to his family.

Likewise, if someone dies as a result of driving on bald tyres, bad brakes, leaving a spacesaver spare on the car for days/weeks, highlight it. It might make someone else think to check the roadworthiness of their car or get the puncture fixed and save another life.

It doesn't take CSI levels of forensics to figure out if two 19 year olds die when a car leaves the road because they were practicing their drifting on a public road at 3am. There's a chance that this info could make the next guy think twice and go do a track day instead.

Making these details public will let us decide which fatalities were unavoidable and which were easily preventable. People will look at the facts of a fatal accident and think how easily it could have been them, either overtaking on a blind bend or hitting the road only four hours sleep after a day long session on the soup. The most profound change to my driving came as a result of a relation being killed off his motorbike 200 yards from his house. The car that hit him was overtaking a truck because he was running late for work. I (and most of us if we're honest) have done silly, risky things for the sake of punctuality, but since then I'm fecked if I'm going to risk mine or anyone else's life to save a potential tongue lashing for being 5 minutes late.

Mr. Presentable

Kudos to the OP for a good idea!

Enforcement in the Courts. There are laws there, use them.

Blood sample taken at every accident.

All vehicles should be fitted with a tachograph or similar to record the driving patters and state of the vehicle, for review in case of accident.

Some way to screen for alcohol when a driver sits into the car, that'd prevent it being driven.

bladespin

More gardai on the road, enforging the rules, basically pulling those who run red lights (even close), cut-ups etc. Not quite zero tolerence but a definate enforcement.

Also 6 points in 4 years = retest (not a ban mind)

The key in my opinion is not to make drivers afraid to make a mistake, more to make them think about what they're doing.

iMax

Where to start ?

Teach driving & road safety as a subject in schools.

Sieze modified cars & give the owners one month to put them back to original condition & then sit a test before they get them back. I'm not talking about cars that have skirt kits etc pit on them, I mean the pimp my corsa brigade, They must be breaking at least noise pollution laws by having the muffler disconnected.

Fail a roadside sobriety test (alcohol/narcotics) ? Car is immediately taken off you & sold with the funds raised going to charity. Not your car/company car/still paying for it ? tough, should have thought of that before you sat behind the wheel.

Six penalty points, downgrade to provisional licence & must pass a test again.

Tipsy Mac

Tell them to go on to google, run a search for what country has the lowest rate of deaths on their roads and just copy all policies and training they have, simple.

Shazforgrub

I have been driving for 2 years on my full license and 3 on a provisional. I never once got a speeding fine or anything until last march. Then in the space of three months I got 6 penalty points, 2 for being on the phone while driving and one for doing 70km in a 50 zone, coming through paulstown. I was never a dangerous driver, but sometimes a little careless with regard to the lower speed limits. Now I rarely go over 90km/hr and do my best to stick to all the lower speed limits, and I am absolutly paranoid everytime I accidently do go over the speed limits, so the points system does work in this regard.

It is very easy to get penalty points though, especially when you do 70k plus in a year like me, so I don't think a retest after 6 points would serve any purpose, just clog up the system even more. A lot of the lower speed limits are very hard to stick to on big wide roads, and it seems that the guards are always pulling for speed in the areas where the will get an easy catch. The majority of the dangerous back roads are never/rarely patrolled from my experience. Also, its all well and good when the law abiding citizens are caught, they will be punished and will learn a lesson. One third of all penalty points sent out never actually make it onto a license though, and this is purely because people don't pay the initial fine and get away with it. It is so dam frustrating for those who are caught and do pay up.

Zube

milltown wrote: »

Publish full details of all road fatalities.

+1

Road deaths have dropped already, to about the lowest levels on record. Why? Safer cars, lower speeds, better roads, less drinking - who knows? Not me, because the facts are not made available.

-Chris-

j1smithy wrote: »

In my experience, from what i've experienced myself from driving over the past 4 years (although I've been carless for the past 6 months) Is the vast majority of modded cars, the souped up corsas etc their drivers are the most obnoxious w@nkers on the road. As insurance companies can tar all with the one brush I would think that pricing them off the roads would make the country safer

This isn't a fair point at all - if you're a bad driver it doesn't matter what you're in. I've been more afraid of old people in 10 year old Micras than young lads in modded Civics, by-and-large.

I'd only agree from the point of view that everyone should be paying their fair share of road costs, and if you "lie" on your insurance proposal and you have an accident, it'll raise the cost of insurance for all of us.

cyclopath2001 wrote: »

AugustusMaximus wrote: »

There are slow car drivers out there though who from my expierience do everything in their power to stop people from overtaking them while going well below the limit themselves.

By the same logic, ban on-road parking and single-occupant cars in areas of high congestion.

How so?

Davidth88 wrote: »

Good thread ! ...

+1

Duckjob

- Get the f**k off motorway/dual carriageway overpasses and onto 2way national roads.
- Less reliance on speed readers.
- Get out in traffic unmarked on national 2 way roads and catch the muppets doing reckless leap-frog overtaking.
- Gardai allowed to use discretion on speed breaches alone - taking factors such as day/night, amount of other traffic, and weather conditions into account.
- Zero tolerance on cars of young lads caught acting the bollox (esp late at night), but leave them alone if driving responsibly.

** Stop reducing road safety to a number on a speed gun **

chickenhawk

Guards to stop hiding behind bushes on good clear roads where the person doing a little over the limit is in no danger.

Points for people who hog the overtaking lane.

Registered post for points so people can't get off but the points have to be delivered within a month not six months. This will stop people using this loophole to get off.

More drink driving tests late at night between 2-4am etc.

Accident blackspots clearly marked and speed cameras in these areas where it's not for revenue.

Fighting Irish

AugustusMaximus wrote: »

The vast majority of this journey is on motorway and I can't ever imagine being overtaken by a truck.

mac is probably one of those people that drive 60km/h on the motorway and sit right out of the white line

Fighting Irish

everyone says speed speed speed

speed doesn't kill, stupid people do

even if the limits in the whole country were all dropped to 50km/h a lot of people would still find a way to kill themselves or someone else

craichoe

Maccattack wrote: »

give everyone airplane tickets?

seriously though. The roads in Ireland are rubbish and cause a lot of accidents.

Driving from Cork to Dublin at night is a frightenning experience. Especially if its raining. The roads are so narrow and if a truck passes you, you shirt yourself.

A trip that would take an hour on a freeway takes 4 hours on Irish roads. So people get impatient and take whatever opportunity they can to overtake alorry or any other slow vehicle.

So whilst the gards and govt can expect people to drive safely. Emphasis should also be put on the provision of safer roads.

How long has it been since you drove on Irish roads !

The roads are better than alot of Western Continental Europe, and alot of England !

The Cork - Dublin route is mostly motorway now.

craichoe

Merrion wrote: »

1. Raise the age at which you get your license to 21.
2. Ban LHD articulated lorries

6. Make sale of petrol to uninsured vehicles illegal.

How about convert Ireland and the UK over to LHD, would make alot more sense.

Or the rest of Europe could just ban RHD Drive trucks in their countries i guess.

On the other point, lots of cars are uninsured for road use, Track cars, Farm Cars, Roundaround for private land etc.

ki

Duckjob wrote: »

- Get the f**k off motorway/dual carriageway overpasses and onto 2way national roads.
- Less reliance on speed readers.
- Get out in traffic unmarked on national 2 way roads and catch the muppets doing reckless leap-frog overtaking.
- Gardai allowed to use discretion on speed breaches alone - taking factors such as day/night, amount of other traffic, and weather conditions into account.
- Zero tolerance on cars of young lads caught acting the bollox (esp late at night), but leave them alone if driving responsibly.

** Stop reducing road safety to a number on a speed gun **

I gree with points 1,2,3,5. And i only reason number 4 is not implementable is because Garda are people and people and can make mitakes, and the law canot be ing to have any grey areas.

But Def number 1.

What is the accident ratio per road type and what is the garda presence per road type?

Dyr

Make it illegal to purchase any vehicle that can exceed our maximum speed limit. Lets see how serious we are about this premise of saving lives.

seamus

Davidth88 wrote: »

If you have no NCT , then your insurance is void ( un roadworthy car ).

That's not entirely fair because the NCT is no guarantee of roadworthiness and very few accidents are down to the state of the vehicle. There's no excuse for not getting NCTed, but I don't see why someone should be faced with the possibility of a big fine and a driving ban if their NCT expired today but they couldn't get/make a test date until this Saturday. It's an excessive punishment for a very minor infraction. Their car won't get any safer or more dangerous in the intervening period.

If you have no licence , then your insurance is void.

This is how it currently is. Every insurance policy hinges on the insured holding a driving licence.

Widespead use of ANPR to enforce the above

I think widespread use of APNR would have a massive impact overall, especially if it was coupled with a countrywide (incl NI) tax and insurance database.
And not just in Garda vehicles - on pole-mounted cameras too. Stick them up in high-volume areas - at the entrance/exits of M and N roads and at the entrances to towns and cities. Why have the Gardai chasing down these people when we can automatically issue fines to them. "You car was off the road you say sir? Well this photo of you leaving the M50 in it says differently. €500 and 4 points, thank you."

TheInquisitor

Maccattack wrote: »

give everyone airplane tickets?

seriously though. The roads in Ireland are rubbish and cause a lot of accidents.

Driving from Cork to Dublin at night is a frightenning experience. Especially if its raining. The roads are so narrow and if a truck passes you, you shirt yourself.

A trip that would take an hour on a freeway takes 4 hours on Irish roads. So people get impatient and take whatever opportunity they can to overtake alorry or any other slow vehicle.

So whilst the gards and govt can expect people to drive safely. Emphasis should also be put on the provision of safer roads.

It is not a frightening experience for the average driver. The roads are crap but their not so bad that you need to swerve to avoid a truck! I only overtake when someone(you sound like one of those terribly slow drivers) is not driving at the limit of 100km/ph . If there are alls grand if not eat my dust!

On topic i think the test should be made much harder. More random drink and drug tests. Only 7% of accidents were caused by excessive speed. Less watching speeders more watching bad drivers. Speeding does not mean bad driving

http://www.transport-watch.co.uk/transport-speed-cameras.htm

iMax

iMax wrote: »

Sieze modified cars & give the owners one month to put them back to original condition & then sit a test before they get them back. I'm not talking about cars that have skirt kits etc pit on them, I mean the pimp my corsa brigade, They must be breaking at least noise pollution laws by having the muffler disconnected..

Please, Since when did a loud exhaust cause a road death. Now I'm no fan of modified Corsas etc but would you include Silvias, skylines etc in that? Which are modified correctly with uprated brakes which are much better than standard, modified suspension for better handling etc etc but might be louder as they have more power.

There is actually no noise regulations in Ireland and they are talking about brining in 99dB at low revs. I know people with very very loud exhausts and they are under 99dB at the required revs. You would be surprised how many of the cars would pass the noise regulations if they sick with 99dB.

Back on topic: As another poster said, people driving slow and holding traffic are a danger on the roads and the drivers need to be punished.

We also need to move away form the blanket statement speed kills. It does not, inappropriate speed and stupid clueless driving causes crashes.

Davidth88

This is how it currently is. Every insurance policy hinges on the insured holding a driving licence.

So why do so many people here still regard driving licences as optional ? Suddenly there are no L plated cars on the road .....draw your own conclusions. Is this enforced ?

The NCT does not prove a car is roadworthy , but currently this is the only test available . I know in the UK I would not drive a car without an MOT , because my insurance is void. I don't think you should be able to tax a car without a NCT , that way you can't forget

As for

How long has it been since you drove on Irish roads !

The roads are better than alot of Western Continental Europe, and alot of England !

The Cork - Dublin route is mostly motorway now.

I know it's being replaced but the stretch from the M7 to the newly built motorway is lethal . This road joins the two biggest cities in the country and is heavily used by HGV's . It should have been motorway 10 years ago at least.

O'Coonassa

flazio wrote: »

What are your suggestions for the fairest most equal way to police our roads and put a stop to unnecessary road deaths?

Make the manufacturers limit the speed that cars are capable of travelling to 50mph. Apes have useless reflexes when moving at high speed.

Saab Ed

O'Coonassa wrote: »

Make the manufacturers limit the speed that cars are capable of travelling to 50mph. Apes have useless reflexes when moving at high speed.

But thats kinda like saying if guns cant shoot bullits then nobody will be killed. Its not the car or the guns fault.

seamus

Davidth88 wrote: »

So why do so many people here still regard driving licences as optional ? Suddenly there are no L plated cars on the road .....draw your own conclusions. Is this enforced ?

"Licence" includes a learner's permit. A car not having L plates up does not make the driver unlicenced (in a legal sense).

I know this differs from the UK where a learner without L plates and/or an accompanying driver is considered to be unlicenced, but that's not the case here. It is moving that way, but there's a backlog of sorts of things which need to be in place before moving to such an extreme.

Twin-go

Garda check points on all roads in and out of towns from 10pm - 5am Friday, Saturday nights (there are so many fatal single vehicle crashes during these times). Patrol cars outside Pubs and clubs in cities during the weekend and breath tests for anybody getting behind the wheel of a car.

If somebody is seen by Gardai doing something stupid on the road they should be pulled. If the are doing things like using incorrect lanes on roundabouts or driving in overtaking lane at 80k/ph you can be sure they are doing stupid moves elsewhere. Their details should be added to a central database. If pulled 6 times within a year for minor stuff like this (not serious enough for pelenty points) they should have to re-take test and pay increased insurance.

In General more Garda presence on the roads and more highlighting to drivers their poor driving. Unless they are told by Gardai no amount of beeping the horn or flashing the lights at them will teach them the problems and possible dangersthey are causing for other road users.

Gregor Samsa

Bambi wrote: »

Make it illegal to purchase any vehicle that can exceed our maximum speed limit. Lets see how serious we are about this premise of saving lives.

Plenty of roads deaths happen at far less than 120km/h, and very few happen on motorways where it's perfectly safe to travel at that (or a greater) speed.

If you're serious about the premise of saving lives, you won't try to reduce it to something so arbitrary as a number on a road sign.

My suggestions would include:

- Better enforcement of overtaking rules (not hogging overtaking lane, not overtaking on solid white lines, etc)
- road improvements for dangerous stretches of road ("Accident Black Spot" signs don't do anything - remove the cause of the danger)
- pedestrian safety: improved public lighting and pavements, especially in rural areas with higher population
- better driver education regarding driving in poor conditions (wet, night, fog, ice, etc) and related enforcement.
- stricter enforcement of drink driving laws. Stiffer penalties for being caught over the limit (Fine + 3 year ban, and then jail (not suspended sentence) if caught driving while your licence is suspended)
- motorway rest stops

O'Coonassa

Saab Ed wrote: »

But thats kinda like saying if guns cant shoot bullits then nobody will be killed. Its not the car or the guns fault.

Clearly a gun is designed for killing so it's not really the same. A four minute mile equates to around 15mph and our reflexes are tuned to that kind of speed. Putting apes into extremely fast metal boxes and sending them hurtling along roads is just asking for trouble.

According to this there were nearly 6,420,000 auto accidents in the United States in 2005. The financial cost of these crashes is more than 230 Billion dollars. 2.9 million people were injured and 42,636 people killed. About 115 people die every day in vehicle crashes in the United States -- one death every 13 minutes. Multiply that up across the planet and it's nothing less than a killing and maiming spree that besides all the human suffering and misery costs a solid fortune. We need to slow down IMO and the best way to do that is restrict engines.

Saab Ed

O'Coonassa wrote: »

We need to slow down IMO and the best way to do that is restrict engines.

Then you try overtaking something with a restricted engine. I dont really fancy 10 seconds on the other side of the road as a truck comes towards me.

TheInquisitor

O'Coonassa wrote: »

Clearly a gun is designed for killing so it's not really the same. A four minute mile equates to around 15mph and our reflexes are tuned to that kind of speed. Putting apes into extremely fast metal boxes and sending them hurtling along roads is just asking for trouble.

According to this there were nearly 6,420,000 auto accidents in the United States in 2005. The financial cost of these crashes is more than 230 Billion dollars. 2.9 million people were injured and 42,636 people killed. About 115 people die every day in vehicle crashes in the United States -- one death every 13 minutes. Multiply that up across the planet and it's nothing less than a killing and maiming spree that besides all the human suffering and misery costs a solid fortune. We need to slow down IMO and the best way to do that is restrict engines.

Yes but only 7.3% of those crashes were caused by speeding! Its bad drivers that cause accidents. Just because you drive fast doesn't make you a bad driver. More accidents are caused by drink/drug driving, dangerous driving and people falling asleep at the wheel