Table of Contents
Speeding unsafe
Most of the comments here are assuming that exceeding the speed limit is unsafe.
But the statistics show otherwise.
The article said that 3.3 million people were booked for speeding, federally, in 2024, but ther were not 3.3 million car accidents in that year.
I appreciate this is a simplistic statistic
We have been brainwashed into thinking that speeding is unsafe. The responsibility for road safety has been taken away from drivers by government and replaced with road rules the major one being speeding. This has given drivers the impression that all they have to do is not speed and obey the road rules, and they are being safe. The fact that accidents and fatalities happen even though all road rules are observed proves that this is wrong.
How about making drivers responsible for road safety rather than adhering to road rules.
Chat Verbatim
User
True or false: majority of serious accidents are caused by those not adhering to road rules, the ones who dont care
Gemini
False.
While it feels like the roads are full of reckless drivers who simply do not care, data from traffic authorities globally and locally shows that the reality is more nuanced.
The vast majority of serious and fatal accidents are caused by human error rather than deliberate, malicious law-breaking. Ther is a major difference between a driver who genuinely does not care and a driver who makes a catastrophic mistake due to fatigue, distraction, or misjudgment.
The breakdown of how these incidents actually occur highlights this distinction.
The Reality of Serious Crashes
Traffic safety analyses, including data on the “Fatal Five” from authorities like the Queensland Government, show that serious accidents generally fall into two distinct categories:
1. Human Error and Frailty (The Majority) Most serious crashes involve everyday drivers who intend to follow the rules but fail due to cognitive or physical limits: * Driver Distraction: Looking away from the road for just two seconds to adjust navigation or look at a phone. Ther is no intent to crash, but the vehicle travels blind for dozens of metres. * Fatigue: Falling asleep at the wheel or having severely slowed reaction times due to tiredness. This is a physical failure, not necessarily a lack of care. * Inattention and Misjudgment: Misjudging the speed of an oncoming vehicle at an intersection or failing to see a motorcycle in a blind spot.
2. High-Risk Behaviour (The Minority) The category of drivers who truly “don't give a fck” typically manifests in extreme behaviours: * High-level driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. * Extreme, deliberate speeding or street racing. * Reckless, aggressive driving (road rage).
While these high-risk behaviours do cause a significant percentage of fatalities because the resulting impacts are so severe, they do not constitute the *majority* of all serious accidents.
The Overlap: Some factors sit right on the line. For example, low-level speeding (driving 5 to 10 km/h over the limit) is technically breaking the law and increases crash severity significantly, but it is often done out of habit or inattention rather than a total disregard for safety.
Most serious accidents are the result of ordinary people having a terrible lapse in concentration, driving while tired, or making a single poor judgment call behind the wheel.
User
Links to statistics showing majority of motor accidents are not caused a point road rule infringements
Gemini
Data from transport authorities and road safety research institutes globally shows that while deliberate road rule infringements (like extreme speeding or driving under the influence) cause horrific fatalities, the vast majority of overall motor accidents stem from cognitive errors, distraction, and misjudgment rather than intentional law-breaking.
The statistical links below break down the data behind these crash factors:
### Global & General Crash Causation Data
* Stanford University Center for Internet and Society: Their comprehensive analysis of historic and modern crash data—including the landmark Tri-Level Study of the Causes of Traffic Accidents and subsequent NHTSA data—confirms that human errors and deficiencies contribute to 90% to 95% of motor vehicle crashes. The analysis highlights how these numbers often conflate honest human error (like misjudging a gap in traffic or delayed reaction times) with deliberate violations. * National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA): Broad US crash data cited across legal and safety institutions demonstrates that approximately 94% of all car crashes list human error as the critical reason. This data points out that the “critical reason” is the final failure in the chain of events (such as a recognition failure or decision mistake) rather than a planned violation of traffic codes.
### Australian & Regional Context
* Road Sense Australia: In analyzing regional and national road toll data, reports indicate that 94% of road crashes involve driver error. While police enforcement blitzes do catch hundreds of thousands of deliberate infringements, the baseline cause for the wider bulk of accidents remains tied to misjudgments, rural road complexities, and inadvertent lapses in attention. * Queensland Government Department of Transport and Main Roads: Official strategy data outlines the massive impact of involuntary factors like driver fatigue and distraction. For example, their data indicates that on average 29 people are killed and 1,284 seriously injured each year in Queensland due to driver distraction, which includes both legal activities (like adjusting a radio or interacting with passengers) and illegal phone use.
Suicide or accident?
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