Hit at 30mph, 90% chance you’ll live. At 40mph, 90% you’ll die...

Iwas caught doing 37mph in a 30 limit. Hardly the crime of the century, I thought – that is until I attended a twohour speed awareness course. Twenty of us gathered in a building in Bromley. As I was buzzed through the door, six or seven others were waiting to be let through another door in an ante-room. ‘It feels like queuing up to be processed in a prison,’ I blurted out, causing a titter from the others. ‘Not that I would know,’ I added quickly.

What surprised me was the social make-up of the 20 people present. Twelve were women and virtually everyone was over 40. There wasn’t a boy racer in sight.

We all had to do a computer test to start with. Most of the questions were designed to see what kind of driver you are.

I was rated as driving ‘very much faster than average’. Hardly a shock. I also drive further away from the vehicle in front than average. I have a faster than average reaction to potential hazards, which will come as a great surprise to my partner, who specialises in trying to brake even when he is a passenger in a car with me.

I have a slightly higher than average ‘emotional reaction’ while driving and can become easily distracted. I have an ‘extreme tendency to sleepiness’. So, the lesson is, if I offer you a lift home after doing a Newsnight appearance, say no!

The main point of the course was to drive home the difference between driving at 30mph and 40mph, and from that point of view it was highly successful. Okay, it stands to reason that the faster you drive, and you hit someone, the more likely they are to die.

But when you are told that at 30mph the person has a 90 per cent of chance of surviving, while at 40mph they only have a 10 per cent chance of surviving, it does make you think. Everyone on the course had been caught doing 30-40mph.

We were all asked why we had been caught. One person said she was rushing someone to hospital. The course leader said that 15 per cent of people who drive too fast to get someone to hospital end up there themselves through having an accident.

Perhaps the most shocking statistic was when we were told that if you break down on the motorway and decide to sit in your car on the hard shoulder your life expectancy is reduced to 12 minutes – 12 minutes!

We were asked what percentage of collisions occur on urban roads, rural roads and motorways. I guessed 50-30-20.

The true statistics are 71 per cent on urban roads, 25 per cent on rural roads and a mere 4 per cent on motorways. In terms of deaths 40 per cent occur on urban roads, 54 per cent on rural roads and 6 per cent on motorways. It’s because if you have a serious crash on an urban road or motorway you are likely to be taken to hospital within an hour, whereas on a rural road it may be hours before someone finds you.

I am glad I attended. The course held our attention throughout, even if at times people probably felt as if they were being spoken to as if they were naughty children. But it never felt as if we were being lectured.

Perhaps the least credible part of the course was when the course leader asserted that she never, ever speeds. No one believed her. Until she told us that her 13-year-old daughter had been hit by a motorist doing, like me, 37mph in a 30 limit. She survived but is still receiving treatment for the injuries she suffered.

We all stared at our feet. As well we might. Especially me.