The faster you drive, the more damage you cause in an accident. About 30 percent of all traffic fatalities are because of driving above the speed limit.
Nobody in his right mind would argue that driving excessively fast is risky business. When you’re toting a mobile home or an RV, you’re even more apt to cause extreme damage if you’re in a high-speed accident. Driving within the speed limit in a controlled, safe manner is a good starting point. However, driving the speed limit may not be the ending point.
Exceeding the speed limit, and the damage caused from high-speed accidents, isn’t the only concern to driving at a safe speed. Exceeding the speed limit is not the only form of excessive speed. Excessive and dangerous speed can also occur when driving too fast for the conditions:
- Driving on wet, icy or snow-covered roads. You should reduce your speed by one-third your normal speed when roads are wet and by one-half when snow covered and possibly even more when roads are ice.
- Driving in heavy traffic. You should allow at least two seconds of stopping distance if driving under 35 MPH in heavy traffic and three or four seconds if driving between 35 and 50 MPH. You shouldn’t be driving more than 50 in heavy traffic.
- Driving speed when the limit is unposted. This condition is known as driving at the “prima facie” speed limit. “Prima facie” means “at first sight” in law, in driving it means you probably need to slow down. It also means you should be aware of local traffic laws.
- Driving too fast for surroundings. This can be passing an accident site, a construction zone or a disabled vehicle. Anything out of the norm that you’re not expecting. Don’t let these situations catch you off guard.
The point of this is to emphasize that speeding is dangerous, as we all know, speeding with a load is even more dangerous and speeding can be more than just exceeding the speed limit.
Happy trails,
Brian
