ex-webby

** PRESS RELEASE FROM ABD **

The Government's new road safety ad sends the wrong
message, says drivers' group.


The Association of British Drivers said today that the
new 'Think' road safety ad will do little to improve
road safety. The new ad shows a driver hitting a
child as he drives through a built up area at 35 mph.

Brian Gregory, the ABD's Chairman commented: "This
advert encourages people to think they are safe
because they drive at 30 mph. Nothing could be
further from the truth. There are many times when
30mph is far too fast for urban conditions and others
when it is safe to go faster. We need to show drivers
how to read the road ahead and make judgements
correctly rather than telling them a fixed speed is
safe. Paying attention to the road is far more
important than a 5mph difference in speed. Until the
so-called road safety campaigners understand and
promote the enormous difference between exceeding an
arbitrary limit and driving too fast for the
conditions, deaths on the roads will not decrease.
Only the latter is dangerous, yet only the former is
being targeted."

The ABD believes the campaign needs to have a broader
emphasis.

Gregory continues: "We need to tell drivers about how
important it is to look well ahead and anticipate - to
see the child before he runs out and to be ready to
avoid him should he do so."

The ABD also stresses the need for drivers to use
observation links. For example, if a ball bounces
into the road, wait for a child to run out after it.
If one child runs across the road, expect his friend
to follow him.

Brian Gregory concludes:

"Too many people turn their brains off when they turn
their engines on. Government safety campaigns should
switch them on again with useful and relevant advice.
Drivers need to be more aware of what is going on
around them."

Martin J Stirling

Nothing else needs to be said..

MS

mook

Here here.

Maybe the govt. would be better advised creating 'better driving' telly programs rather than half baked 20 second 'adverts'. Just a thought.

Dave T-S

The message won't get through to those who can't see - I had the classic ball scenario as described above a couple of weeks ago - driving through a village (30 limit) on my way home, a ball rolled out of a gateway on the left ahead of me. I slowed down to 5 or 10 mph and, as the road ahead was clear, pulled right over on to the right hand side of the road. It was pretty obvious something was happening, yet the goon behind me (who had been tailgating me through the previous 30 limit) - carried on regardless without taking any evading action.

Idiots like this won't even register the advert.....

mutant_matt

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by Dave T-S:
<B>Idiots like this won't even register the advert.....[/quote]

I agree and disagree Dave I think that it will register enough for the idiots to start believing that if they drive at the speed limit then they are "safe"...

Matt

GazP

Just to add to this, where I live they have just put on 20 MPH zone on what used to be a 30 zone, but it is on a main road. 200 yards down that road is a primary school, surely the 20 MPH zone should be outside that? I think the government need to wake up and realise that all these adverts only work on certain type of people, those that understand waht is being presented to them, the other people will carry on regardless. We need the roads sorting out properly, these idiots in Westminster haven't got a clue, speed cameras on dual carriageways, bus lanes on the motorways than never get used, putting roundabouts where T junctions used to be. Until they address the situation *properly* and ask local people how they should go about things nothing will change.

DavidBrown

As said elsewhere, every school should have a Gatso outside it, and perhaps every town centre highstreet.

At least then, there would be logic behind the governments money making scam erm. scheme.

CraigD

I agree that education is the way to go. However the fact remains that however good a driver you are it will take you longer to stop from 35 than 30mph. That could be the difference between you killing a 6 year old or not!

DrEvil

I can kind of see both sides, but they really ought to think about pushing driver education, the road-safety peeps just seem to ignore this aspect.

mutant_matt

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by CraigD:
<B>The fact remains that however good a driver you are it will take you longer to stop from 35 than 30mph.[/quote]

You are absolutely right but a driver paying attention is far more likely to be able to stop in time from whatever speed they are travelling because they are driving at an appropiate speed for the situation and are actually watching the road in front of them....sounds obvious I know but most people don't seem to actually *see* what's in front of them

Matt

KF

Why do cars have speedometers?

Think about it. Is a dial indicating your speed relevant to safe driving, or even helpful?

Do you guage your safety, and those that surround you by a little red needle? If you do, you don't deserve to be in a car.
Be safe.
KF.

TonyBurns

iTrader: (3)

I know a lot of people blame drivers for the ammount of accidents on the roads and yes, alot of it is down to not anticipating whats ahead, only yesterday did i see a dog on the pavement with no lead on which then ran out into the middle of the road, fortunately for me i had already anticipated and was going slow enough to stop (was doing about 15mph at the time).
But rather than the government forcing all the blame onto the driver and hitting us hard (even though some drivers think that they are god in their cars and everyone else should get out of the way) why cant they improve the pedestrians awareness too!! It all starts at school and i dont think the government is putting enough effort into teaching kids how to respect the roads, its not about having a ball come out into the road its also about the kid who should then look before he/she leaps out to get it, if the ball is 5 meters infront of a car thats doing 30mph or even 20mph the kid will still go for it as they havnt been taught not too Do you all remember doing a cycling proficiency test when you were at school??? (a few years ago i know but........) do they still do that??? kids on bikes are one hell of a hazard to everyone, not just a motorist and 90+percent i see dont have any sort of safety gear on, no helmet or elbow protectors, nothing
I am no saint when it comes to speeding but the one thing that i dont do is speed through towns, its THE most hazardous place that you can drive through as there are so many obsticals and unknowns that can happen.
When the government become aware that they need to teach EVERYONE and not just the motorists about anticipation and road safety, then and only then do i think we shall have a decrease in the fatalities and serious injuries on the roads of britain.

Tony

GranTurismo

Hello,

I think that the ABD press release is not a good idea. It is very easy to look at it and think that they are saying

"if you are a good driver then doing over 30 is OK if the conditions allow it"

The problem is most people think they ARE good drivers (myself included so prehaps I am a hypocrit)

Does Mr Rep in his vectra think he is a bad driver, NO, he drives 10ft behind me at 80mph becasue he thinks he IS a good driver and can react quickly, especially in his super cool SRi version.

Many of the public on our roads are total fools and need a simple, hard hitting advert to show them the consequencs of thier actions.

Critisising such an advert can only be counter productive in making organisations like the ABD seem reputable.

I WOULD support pressure to have adverts targeted at PEDESTRIANS and not just Kids becuase most people who step out infront of me are Adults who look me right in the eye as if to say "IF you hit me its your fault". In my opionion the ABD need to focus campaining to making road saftey an issue for all road users, not just drivers who have number plates to photograph and licences to endorse (and fines by the way!)

Driver education is very important, but so is PUBLIC education.

Thats my opinion....

schuey

Here we go agian on speed.
As we all know the majority of the time its not speed that kills but crap driving and failing to read the road ahead.
Too many drivers only look about 10 yards ahead instead of a couple of hundred.
You also have the drivers who think that because they are doing the speed limit or less they are safe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
These are some of the worst drivers on the road.
Also in the advert the driver appears to lock up all four wheels!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Never heard of realising the pedal when the wheels lock? Also most modern cars come with ABS as standard.
As I work nights, when I come home from work I have to drive past a school, if you can do more than 20mph you are lucky. The worst drivers are those on the school run who think that indicators are optional extras, don't know how to use filter lanes, think that mirrors are for having a shave, doing make-up or hair and just stop on corners and let the kids get out into the flow of traffic.
I'm all for 20 mph outside schools durring the daytime, school term time, but what about durring school holidays or at night when 30 or even 40 might be perfectly safe.
Now we find the minister of transport can't even drive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What hope is there for us????????????????

Jon

Ian Griffiths

Here here to the press release. Spot on.

robski

schuey,

quite the opposite when I saw it!

the fronts are heavily locked, and the rears dont see to be doing anything other than rolling

robski

Adam M

To my knowledge germany has the safest roads in europe (incidentally the autobahns with no limits have the lowest number of deaths per mile :eek .

Is it coincidence that they also have the strictest driving test? I don't think so.

Much as I hate all germans I have to admit they are far more observant drivers and have a feel for the rules.

I remember reading articles by journalists test driving german cars in germany. British journalists getting frustrated during their testdrives by slower moving vehicles. In the situation the british elected to undertake, at which point the german passengers immediately demanded the test drive end as this was a display of terrible driving.

I agree with this, but I doubt you would get that from british drivers, they are more forgiving of such indiscretions.

teknopete

What about imposing fines on stupid pedestrians and persons supposidly in charge of animals ?
I recall passing a park on a dual carriageway @ 35 - 40 mph, I saw something dart out at the side of me, i swerved and heard a thud i banged the anchers on. Some fool had let his dog off the lead as soon as he was through the gates of the park and the dog doubled back and ran straight into the side of my car!! Did he ask if my car was alright ? Did he nuts Had there have been a car in the other lane I`d have walloped it because of a stupid dog/owner combo. Twits like that should get there collar felt IMHO as with fools who seem to wait for a car comming and step out.
Even in this day and age common sense seems to be lacking, the way to cut down on pedestian accidents is educate them...
1 ton of metal @ 30mph V`s 1 human body, I wonder which will come off the worst?
But it seems that we the drivers bear the brunt all the time.
&lt;off soapbox&gt; &lt;an flamesuit on&gt;