In a Tweet, Kent Police’s Road Policing Unit have warned drivers not to leave their vehicles unattended with the engine running to warm them on frosty mornings.
Note: It is an offence to leave a vehicle unattended on a road unless the engine is stopped.
The risk of injury increases exponentially with impact speed. A crash at 30mph involves a lot more energy and destructive potential than a crash at 20mph.
Driving faster not only lessens drivers’ chances of being able to stop in time to avoid hitting someone or something. It also means if they can’t stop in time, they will hit with greater impact. The greater the impact, the greater the chances of causing serious injury or death.
A vehicle travelling at 20mph (32km/h) would stop in time to avoid a child running out three car-lengths in front. The same vehicle travelling at 25mph (40km/h) would not be able to stop in time, and would hit the child at 18mph (29km/h). This is roughly the same impact as a child falling from an upstairs window.
The greater the impact speed, the greater the chance of death. A pedestrian hit at 30mph has a very significant (one in five) chance of being killed. This rises significantly to a one in three chance if they are hit at 35mph.Even small increases in speed can lead to an increase in impact severity.
Kent County Council (KCC) have received reports of a company using high pressure techniques to sell burglar alarms with a 5 year maintenance contract.
One salesman demanded the 80 year old resident pay the full amount upfront.
Please look out for neighbours and report any suspicious doorstep callers to KCC.
For advice on what to do if you or someone you know has been pressured into buying a product visit Citizens Advice or telephone them on 03454 04 05 06.
If you require work done to your home get a number of quotes. Use a reputable company who has been recommended by family or friends or use a Kent County Council approved trader via Checkatrade www.checkatrade.com/kent/.
Speed and stopping distances don’t increase at the same rate. Small increases in speed result in bigger increases in stopping distances.
Stopping distances include the distance travelled while the driver notices a hazard and applies the brakes (thinking distance), and while the vehicle comes to a full stop from its initial speed (braking distance).
The stopping distances shown here are based on a reaction time of 0.67 seconds, which assumes the driver is alert, concentrating and not impaired. Driving when tired, distracted or impaired significantly increases reaction times, so the thinking distances should be regarded as minimums.2
The braking distance depends on how fast the vehicle was travelling before the brakes were applied, and is proportional to the square of the initial speed. That means even small increases in speed lead to significantly longer braking distances. Braking distances are much longer for larger and heavier vehicles, and in wet or icy conditions.3
Technology such as anti-lock brakes and stability control are designed to enable greater control over the vehicle, not shorten stopping distances. There may be a very small reduction in braking distance with modern technology, but not enough to significantly affect your overall stopping distance.4 Whatever technology a vehicle has, the basic fact remains that the faster you drive, the longer your stopping distance, and therefore the less chance you have of stopping in time in an emergency.
Speed is a critical factor in all road crashes and casualties.
Driving is unpredictable and if something unexpected happens on the road ahead – such as a child stepping out from between parked cars – it is a driver’s speed that will determine whether they can stop in time and, if they can’t stop, how hard they will hit.
Reducing and managing traffic speeds is crucial to road safety.
Breaking the speed limit or travelling too fast for conditions is recorded (by police at crash scenes) as a contributory factor in almost one in four (23%) fatal crashes in the UK.1 This is arguably a gross underestimate, because whether or not a vehicle is judged to have been speeding or going too fast for conditions, the fact it was involved in a collision means it was going too fast to have stopped in time. In this way, speed is always a contributory factor, albeit often in combination with other causes: no one was ever killed by a stationary vehicle
and for many more reasons besides. But there’s no excuse for speeding – it’s a major factor in many road crashes, and the faster a vehicle is travelling, the greater the amount of energy transferred in a crash, and the higher the likelihood of serious injury or death.
View the no need to speed explanimation video showing the risks of speeding, with TRL academy director Richard Cuerden.
KCC cannot clear pavements so please take extra care when walking.
A common rumour at this time of year is that people are not allowed to salt the pavements – this is untrue.
The government advice is:
You can clear snow and ice from pavements yourself. It’s unlikely that you’ll be sued or held responsible if someone is injured on a path or pavement if you’ve cleared it carefully.
When you clear snow and ice:
do it early in the day – it’s easier to move fresh, loose snow
don’t use water – it might refreeze and turn to black ice
use salt if possible – it will melt the ice or snow and stop it from refreezing overnight
you can use ash and sand if you don’t have enough salt – it will provide grip underfoot
pay extra attention when clearing steps and steep pathways – using more salt may help
A new set of ambulance response standards, aimed at delivering the quickest response possible for the most critically-ill or injured patients, will be introduced in South East Coast Ambulance Service from tomorrow (22 November).
The new nationally-determined standards have been introduced across the country in recent months.
Changing the performance standards, which were introduced in 1974, will improve efficiencies and free up ambulance crews to respond to emergencies. Vehicles are often dispatched to respond to patients in less than eight minutes but most patients do not need this level of response. The new standards will enable the Trust to send the most appropriate response to each patient, first time, while continuing prioritise those in the greatest need.
For example, stroke patients will receive an ambulance response at the first allocation, to ensure they can be conveyed to hospital as quickly as possible to receive the clinical intervention they require.
The availability of a transporting resource will also be improved, reducing the length of time single responders wait for back up. (more…)
Following the largest clinical ambulance trials in the world, South East Coast Ambulance Service is to implement new ambulance standards.
The changes focus on making sure the best, high quality, most appropriate response is provided for each patient first time.
Historically ambulance services are allowed up to 60 seconds from receiving a call to sending a vehicle. They told us this isn’t long enough.
So from now on call handlers will be given more time to assess 999 calls that are not immediately life-threatening, which will enable them to identify patients’ needs better and send the most appropriate response.
Ambulance services are measured on the time it takes from receiving a 999 call to a vehicle arriving at the patient’s location.
Life-threatening and emergency calls, under the current standards, should be responded to in eight minutes. We know that most patients do not need this level of response.
So, in future there will be four categories of call.
Category 1 – Calls from people with life-threatening illnesses or injuries
This short animation explains more about these calls:
Category 2 – Emergency calls
Hear more about these types of calls:
Category 3 – Urgent calls
Watch this short animation on what an urgent call is:
