Monday, July 9, 2012
Former racer against speed increase
A race driver bemoaning a possible increase in the speed limit for the UK’s highways? That’s odd.
Well, Damon Hill, a former world champion race driver who has won the Grand Prix 22 times, has said that he thinks an increase from 70mph to 80mph on motorways would be a disaster. The ex-racer, who retired in 1999, explains, "Most people aren't safe to drive over 55. The speed limit going up to 80mph makes me shudder.
"People mostly drive too fast on the motorway and too close to the car in front. They think they know what they're doing and they don't."
This might sound like a big insult to a large number of this country’s motorists, but in comparison to him we must all be pretty unskilled behind the wheel.
Unfortunately, whereas Mr Hill states that he doesn’t like driving over 70mph because he finds it stressful, it’s usually the most unskilled and inconsiderate road users among us who decide to ignore the speed limit regulations.
Talking about his ‘boy racer’ days, Hill says, “I escaped by the skin of my teeth when I was younger because I was a good driver, but that didn't make it OK."
It’s a shame we can’t give reckless road users some hindsight, so that they could see how dangerously they are behaving. Sadly some of these motorists might not learn how important being safe behind the wheel is until it’s too late.
Photo © Supermac1961 via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: car, Damon Hill, drive, driving, Grand Prix, highway, motorway, race driver, road users, speed limit
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posted by Fuse @ 1:09 AM 
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