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Old 02-21-2006, 09:24 PM   #50
chipj29
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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.
Jack I am going to have to respectfully disagree with your 93 speeding analogy. Without a speed limit, it is possible for one to be "speeding". Traveling at a speed that is unreasonable and unsafe for conditions. Just throwing a speed limit out there doesn't mean that it will be obeyed. To me it appears as though there have been very few accidents that have been attributed to speed. Most are caused by driver inattention, BUI, etc. Putting a speed limit won't necessarily make an accident attributed to speed.

I also disagree with the Littlefield analogy. I believe that if a 25 mph speed limit were in place that it would be difficult to have given him a speeding ticket. No radar, only "estimated" speed. If the speed limit was 25, do you think he would have actually admitted he was going over that speed? How many boat speedometers do you know that are spot on with the speed of the vessel? Most are within +/- 3-5 mph. So Mr Littlefield could have said he was going 25 but his boat may have been going anywhere from 22-28 mph.

So my question still stands. What are the baseline numbers, and what is the expected result IF HB162 is enacted? I would like hard numbers. I am sure that the proponents have studied this.
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