Speed Kills
Police say it's the single most common factor in accidents; Speed: Part 2 of 3
By Fred Vallance-Jones
The Hamilton Spectator
(Jun 6, 2005)
Nine hundred people die on Ontario roads every year. On the QEW alone in 2004, 811 were injured and nine killed.
And speed plays a role in a disturbing number of those accidents.
About two-thirds of all accidents resulting in injury and death involved excessive speed, loss of control or tailgating.
Engineering advances such as crush zones, airbags, and antilock brakes have made today's vehicles the safest ever, but the human body hasn't kept pace.
No matter how well protected, we're not built to withstand the forces in a high speed crash.
"Many people just do not understand how strong those forces are," said Raynald Marchand, manager of traffic safety and training with the Canada Safety Council.
"At 100 km/h, you essentially have the force as if you fell off a 10-storey building." And that's at the speed limit.
Crash at 115 and the force is one-third higher. Double at 140 km/h.
"Unless you've seen a crash at 130 to 140, I don't think the average member of the public has any significant idea of what is involved," said Bob Weekes, who recently retired as commander of the OPP Burlington detachment.
It's all about physics.
Unless something like an air bag intervenes, you keep going at the same speed and in the same direction as your car was going before the crash.
If you don't have a seatbelt on, you may be ejected.
"In car crashes we (mostly) see head and chest and belly injuries, although we have seen a definite improvement in that with the increased use of air bags and seatbelts," said Dr. Frank Baillie, head of the trauma program at Hamilton General Hospital.
It was Baillie's unit that fought to save Karan Hobley's life.
It's the main trauma unit for a wide area stretching from Niagara through Brantford.
Even after your body stops moving, your internal organs keep going until they hit the inside of your body.
Your brain may slam into the front of your skull, then rebound and strike the back.
"The brain controls all of your physiologic activities and when you traumatize the brain and the head that results in the most severe losses," said Dr. John Fernandes, a forensic pathologist at the General Hospital in Hamilton.
Fernandes sees the patients that Baillie can't save.
He knows death and all its causes.
He shakes his head when he sees a young person die senselessly in a traffic crash.
And Baillie says much of the death and injury is preventable.
"It's the judgment about when you should drive and when you shouldn't and then, of course, how you should drive -- carefully and not too fast and so on and so forth," Baillie said.
"The reality is one little error of judgment and people can be in big trouble and either we're seeing them or the coroner is seeing them."
Police say speed is the single most common contributor to accidents.
Reduce speed and you reduce death and injury.
Many researchers agree.
In Australia, University of Adelaide professor Jack McLean found that the chance of having an accident resulting in injuries doubles when drivers accelerate 10 km/h above the average speed of traffic.
It grows by 500 per cent at 20 kilometres above the average.
If traffic is moving at 100 and you're driving at 120, you're five times more likely to have an accident.
Researchers at the Land Transport Safety Authority in New Zealand looked at what happened in American states that raised maximum speeds on rural interstates to 70 and 75 miles per hour (112 to 120 km/h).
They found that fatalities were 35 and 38 per cent higher respectively, compared to states that did not raise their speed limits.
fvallance-jones@thespec.com
