Speed limits to be slashed

A maverick Welsh Labour MP has demanded that speed limits on British motorways are slashed by changing from MPH to KPH!!! This would effectively make the speed limits on British motorways just 40MPH

Whilst we are a responsible car insurance website seeking to minimise any accidents or injury, this type of policy would cause gridlock on British motorways already struggling with traffic levels. But as Nia Griffith MP says: "We want our cars and freedom to use them, but why could we not decide to have a lower speed limit? Most people want to slow down but feel they are holding up other road users."

This debate is part of the Road Safety Bill being discussed in parliament, the idea would be that fixed penalties would vary according to how much over the limit they were going. Doing up to 39mph in a 30mph zone would bring two points but up to 45mph would bring 3 points. More than this would lead to 6 points. We are in favour of sensible speed limits but feel that there should be a wider public debate on the issue. The number of people coming to our cheap car insurance websites with 6 or more points has dramtically increased over the last two years and there is a felling amongst sections of the public that this government is simply taxing road users.

Recent government statistics reveal that fewer than 5% of accidents are caused by excess speed, this is a long way from the traditional government line that it is 33% figure that has been used by the government for the last 15 years. Perhaps the reason ministers are so keen to blame speeding is that the 6000 cameras on the roads raise £1.2 billion a year from 2.1 million drivers!!!

Date - 15/11/2006