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by onion2k 1558 days ago
Speed in a crash isn't a particularly big problem. The dangerous bit is how quickly you decelerate. Going from 100kmh to 0 over a few hundred meters and a few seconds by bouncing around the road and the barriers won't be much fun but you'll walk away. Going from 100kmh to 0 by driving in to something stationary will kill you pretty much instantly unless your car's safety tech saves you by giving you a cushion of air to decelerate in to.

Speeding isn't dangerous. Stopping is.
2 comments
mads_ravn 1558 days ago
You are of course correct, but speed does give an upper bound on how quickly you decelerate. Anyways, I got curious and looked up accident statistics in Denmark [1], and only ~10% of accidents that result in fatalities happen on freeways (where speed is highest), ~56% happens on country roads (second highest speed and more objects that will decelerate you quickly) and the remaining happen in the city. The authorities estimated that excessive speed played a major factor in 43% of the accidents.

[1] https://www.vejdirektoratet.dk/sites/default/files/2021-12/D... (in danish)

EDIT: 43%, not 46%

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eqvinox 1558 days ago
Coincidentally, while fines for speeding are relatively lax in Germany, the penalties for underrunning minimum distances (which are calculated from speed) will wreck you. (Your driver's license will be decked pretty fast, and you can end up in prison too.)
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