dombooth wrote:GJD wrote:Drivers in the emergency services often drive above the speed limit, but when they do so they're still looking to drive at a speed appropriate for the conditions. Of course, in doing so they aren't breaking the law because they are exempt from the speed limit.
Only when on a call with lights and/or sirens isn't it?
They can only exceed the speed limit when their purpose makes it necessary (although they aren't obliged to use lights or sirens when they do so), but that's beside what was my point
. I used it as a (hopefully) non-controversial example of someone driving faster than the posted speed to illustrate the meaning of 'appropriate' as I thought James was using the word.
Concerning speed, there are four combinations of appropriateness and adherence to the limit. If I was confident I could get a fixed pitch font working I'd draw a 2 x 2 matrix
. In the absence of that, a list:
A - driving at a safe speed below the limit
B - driving at a safe speed above the limit
C - driving at an unsafe speed below the speed limit
D - driving at an unsafe speed above the speed limit
A is obviously fine. The other three all have something wrong with them. I would put those three in the following order (most serious first): D, C, B.
An emergency services driver can do B perfectly legally when they need to. You and I can not do B legally, but we could choose to do it anyway where circumstances permitted. If we were to do it, we would, in my opinion, be committing the least severe of the errors that one can commit with speed.
This thread is as long as it is because of how strongly some here feel that the road safety focus should be on C and D instead of where it is currently - on B and D.