Columnist Susan Snyder: Stop making speedy decisions

Friday, Feb. 25, 2005 | 6:20 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursday and Sundays. Reach her at snyder@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4082.

WEEKEND EDITION

February 26 - 27, 2005

Consider:

A tractor-trailer struck the median on Interstate 15 near Washington Avenue on Tuesday and exploded into flames, killing the driver and passenger.

A tractor-trailer overturned on I-15 near the D Street off-ramp around 4 a.m. Feb. 11. Less than four hours later a second tractor-trailer jackknifed on I-15 near the Cheyenne Avenue exit.

A Dodge Viper careened off I-215 near Pecos Road on Jan. 20 and rolled multiple times before coming to rest in a culvert, injuring the driver and critically injuring the 14-year-old passenger.

A Ford Explorer traveling at a high rate of speed along Fort Apache Road crashed into another car near Reno Avenue on Jan. 7. The Explorer's 21-year-old driver was critically injured.

A Mustang collided head-on with an SUV on Jan. 6 after swerving around a slower driver on Del Ray Avenue near Torrey Pines Drive, critically injuring the Mustang's 18-year-old driver.

Lousy decisions amplified by excessive speed. While speed is not the cause of most crashes, it remains the most aggravating element, Nevada Highway Patrol Capt. Chris Perry said.

"What speed does is make the accident a lot more severe," he said.

Ten years after the repeal of the national speed limit of 55 mph, excess speed remains a factor in 32 percent of all crashes, National Transportation Safety Administration figures show.

Unlike rain or other drivers' bad decisions, speed is the only element we can control. But we seem reluctant to do so. Why we continue to be a nation of speeders is open to speculation.

Our cars are faster. Our schedules are tight.

We're stupid (a less scientific reason, yet more satisfying).

And a fair number of us consider speed limits arbitrary figures set without concrete safety reasons. The National Motorists Association, a driver's advocacy group, hosts the online Speed Trap Exchange, where drivers across the country post locations and comments about police speed traps.

Yes, another public forum in which Nevadans can excel.

In noting speed enforcement efforts on Oakey Boulevard between 10th Street and Las Vegas Boulevard, a Las Vegas motorist writes, "The posted speed limit is only 25 because this is a residential neighborhood ... Just about everyone I know has been popped there."

Friends should not teach friends to drive.

Another Roads Scholar says officers working at Flamingo Road and Maryland Parkway have "extremely bad attitudes" toward people stopped for "running the red light (quite common), or making illegal U-turns" under the sign that says not to.

You've sped through a red light and you want what -- a pat on the head and a cookie?

Their reasons share a notion that speed limits defy common sense. If there's room to go 60 mph, why not?

A 14-year-old girl suffers critical head injuries. An 18-year-old is crushed behind the steering wheel. Two people are burned beyond recognition. These lives wrecked by speed are ones we've read about. Many more of us have been spared in the countless close calls that never make the headlines.

It would appear that we need some drivers with sense that is a little less common.