Speeding to death

In her May 24 commentary, “Speed focus not making road safer”, the writer said: “You can drive fast, very fast, but if you remain disciplined, the chances are that you will be safe”. This fallacy is directly contradicted by the facts concerning road deaths related to speeding by a WHO report that crunches the data about driving fatalities and speed.

In developed countries, 30% of the fatalities are related to speeding while in developing countries such as Thailand, speeding accounts for 50% of the traffic fatalities.

Then to use the autobahn as an example of proper high-speed driving is misleading without context. Most of the highway is regulated with a 90kph limit and they are considering limiting the speed in the other areas because of safety concerns. Also, those roads are engineered and maintained for such driving and the drivers are skilled enough to handle the task. Thailand is light years away from having proper roadways and from your diatribe, that far from being mature enough to deal with such a privilege.

People who drive in countries where higher speeds are legal follow all the rules. They do not make five lanes on a road marked for three, they do not allow people to travel unsecured in the back of trucks, they do not allow several people on a motorcycle — or even let a motorcycle drive on the roads with three propane tanks bungeecorded on the seat like a rolling bomb, they do not pull out in front of oncoming traffic and expect the other driver to take evasive manoeuvres. DARIUS HOBER