For truck drivers, an 80 km/h speed limit has the potential to save at least 20 to 32 lives per year
Improving the safety of heavy vehicles – What is the problem?
Safer Journey Strategy page 28
- In 2008, crashes involving heavy vehicles (HVs) accounted for 18% of road deaths and 9% of total injuries. This equates to 65 deaths, 258 serious injuries and 1,144 minor injuries.
- About 80% of people killed in heavy vehicle-related crashes are other road users.
Table data from Quarterly road toll report Jan 2017 to Mar 2017 http://www.transport.govt.nz/research/roadtoll/
What has Safe Journeys improved for drivers of Heavy Vehicles (HVs) in New Zealand?
In 2010 HVs were involved in 71 of 379 deaths (18.7%)
In 2017 HVs have been involved in 91 deaths (rolling 12 month) of 332 annual road fatalities: 27% of road deaths.
Benchmark this against the 2016 German crash facts.
German drivers of HVs suffered 137 deaths out of 3,155 persons killed on German traffic: 4.3% of road deaths.
There are a lot of trucks on German Autobahns, but there also helpful safety rules.
The Autobahn has an advisory speed limit of 130 km/h. While going faster is not illegal, in the case of an accident, the driver is deemed at least partially responsible due to “increased operating danger”.
Vehicles with a top speed of less than 60 km/h are not allowed to use the autobahn.
For HVs (Goods Vehicles) over 3.5 t the maximum speed is 80 km/h. In New Zealand it is 90 km/h. Wiki Speed limits in Germany
Countries where the maximum speed is 80 km/h for ‘Single carriageway’: China, Demark, Finland (winter), France (rain), India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan.
Countries where the maximum speed for trucks is 80km/h or less: Argentina, Brazil, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey.
“ If open road mean speeds dropped by 5 km/h, 60 lives per year would be saved” (Page 22, safe systems) Safer Journey Strategy
To repeat: for truck drivers, an 80 km/h speed limit has the potential to save at least 20 to 32 lives per year.
Mark
August 29, 2017 at 9:52 am
Speeding is a critical issue in reducing roadway deaths. 30% of fatal crashes are caused by excessive speeds. In urban areas, reducing speeds by even 5mph can have enormous safety benefits.