Brake call for lower speed limits in Town

Almost three quarters (72%) of drivers surveyed by the road safety charity Brake admitted driving at 35mph or faster in a 30mph zone. Half of these offenders (36%) admitted doing this daily or at least once a week.

The charity however claim that, by driving slowly in residential areas there is a much greater chance of stopping in time. As a driver's speed rises, the stopping distances rises much more quickly; stopping distances treble between 20mph and 40mph.

A car driven at 20mph or lower (the maximum speed limit recommended by Brake for towns and villages) can stop in 12 metres (about three car lengths) or less, giving the driver a good chance to brake and stop in time if a child runs out ahead.

A car driven at 30mph would take nearly double this distance (23 metres) to stop (about six car lengths). A child hit at 27mph is likely to suffer serious injury such as paralysis or brain injury, or die.

A car driven at 36mph would take two and half times this distance (about 30 metres) to stop (about seven and a half car lengths). A child hit at 35mph would almost certainly die or suffer very serious injury such as paralysis or brain injury

20mph is the default urban limit in some countries with significantly lower child pedestrian death rates, such as The Netherlands. Brake is calling on the government to adopt the same limit in the UK. Brake claim that there is an urgent need for the default 30mph limit to be changed to 20,