I refer to Dr Jean Karl Soler’s letter entitled “Better roads mean safer travelling” (TMIS, 15 April) in which he served up another sermon on why car drivers in Malta should be allowed to drive at higher speeds. The reasons for this are his dubious assertions that “Malta has one of the lowest national speed limits in the world”, that Malta has “one of the best road safety statistics in Europe”, and that “speed is often demonised (in Malta)”. Dr Soler also tried to confuse readers at a higher level with some heavy-duty statistical processing with a flourish of mind-boggling standard deviations on annual serious traffic-related injuries (which varied from 283 to 316) and annual fatalities (which varied from 11 to 23). All this, when data crunching with exalted statistics on such tiny sample sizes is rather like trying to circumcise a mosquito with a chain saw.

An  OECD Transport  Research Centre report,   (Ambitious Road Safety Targets and the Safe System Approach), states as follows: “… speed management: enforcement of existing speed limits can provide immediate safety  benefits, perhaps more quickly than any other single safety measure. Effective speed management also requires that speed limits are appropriate for the standard of the road, the roadside risks, road design, traffic volumes and mix and presence of vulnerable road users.

“Public support for reduced speed limits needs to be fostered, as there is generally little understanding that small decrements in speed produce substantial reductions in trauma. Other essential components of speed management are infrastructure improvement and the use of new technologies, such as intelligent speed adaptation, to modify behaviour.”

Furthermore, unlimited (ie., higher) motorway speeds have been shown to be associated with higher fatality rates – hence the 120 Km/h  limit on many motorways. Higher urban speed limits are even more clearly correlated with higher pedestrian fatalities – especially children, as quoted in the OECD document. The likelihood of a pedestrian fatality when hit by a car travelling at 30 Km/h  is three per cent,  at 50 Km/h it is  20 per cent of pedestrians and,  if hit at 60Km/h, 90 per cent of pedestrians will be killed. (European Transport Safety Council 1995) at speeds of 70Km/h or over the rate is virtually 100 per cent,

Contrary to what Dr Soler asserts, the adage that “Speed Kills” remains very valid and is supported by robust statistical evidence. This applies particularly to the 30 km/h limit, which has now introduced in most countries. Urban speed limits should be tolerant of occasional human error. 30 km/h streets will be safer and should be part of the environment where people live.

 

G.G. Debono

Sliema