Killing Children to Save Three Minutes

From World Streets: "A pedestrian hit by a car at 40 mph has a 95% chance of being killed, at 30 mph this becomes 50% and at 20 mph it becomes 5%." -- Dr. Stephen J. Watkins, National Health Service, Stockport, UK

Speed contributes to causing accidents and it also increases their severity. Most child pedestrian road deaths would be averted if people drove at 20mph in side streets. As few places are more than a mile from a main road, few journeys involve more than two miles on side roads (a mile at each end). The difference between driving two miles at 20mph and at 40mph is 3 minutes. We are killing our children to save less than three minutes on our journeys.