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Old 02-21-2006, 03:37 PM   #53
Woodsy
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Fat Jack
Chip,
The cause will never be "speeding" so long as any speed is legal. If I run you over on Rte 93 while going 60 MPH, it will surely be recorded as "reckless operation", "operator inattention", etc....the same kind of causes that now head our boating accident report lists. If I was instead going say 70 MPH (over the legal speed limit for Rte 93), the cause would surely include "speeding". Without a speed limit, there can be no "speeding" (unless you foolishly believe in that "reasonable and prudent" nonsense).
Once we have a 45MPH speed limit, then the rare future accident where a boat was going over 70MPH just before, like the boat that flipped in Gilford, the one that flipped in Alton, the fatal Donzi accident in Wolfeboro, the boat that almost flew over Eagle Island, etc, etc, etc, would all be classified to include "speeding".
And Littlefield would presumably also have been charged with "speeding" too had HB162 then been in effect. Remember that 28MPH was the speed that he claims he was going.
And also remember, it is your group that believes that numbers can be made to say anything.
Fat Jack...

Wrong again... You don't need a speed limit for excessive speed to be the primary cause of an accident. The MP look at speed in every boating accident. In the Littlefield case, it wasn't Danny Littlefield that gave us the 28 MPH estimate. It was the MP accident reconstruction team. If the MP accident reconstruction team thought that 28MPH that night was excessive for the prevailing conditions, Danny would have been charged with negligent homicide as a result of reckless operation. You really ought to check your facts.

Lets assume you are in a brand new AWD Volvo traveling up Rt 93 at 55 MPH in a 65MPH zone during a rainstorm or snowstorm... you slide off the road and hit a tree, iinjuring yourself andf your passenger. You can bet excessive speed (for the prevalent conditions) will be listed as the primary cause of the accident as your signing the ticket for reckless operation of a motor vehicle with injury resulting.


The issue is that excessive speed is very rarely the primary cause of collisions. Usually there are other mitigating factors such as BWI. Most of the collision pix APS has posted in other threads have been the result of BWI. If a person is willing to run the risk of getting behind the wheel drunk, knowing how severe the penalties are, then a speeding ticket is of little consequence.

Woodsy
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