Caravans being towed over the speed limit
Comments
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I feel that looking more to the growth of the mobile phone together with its abilities, to TXT, screen video and select music tracks, rather than speed, may hold the true reason
The case with the lorry driver who got just 10 years yesterday highlights this. IMO all cars should have phone blocking devices built in. I would also like to see all drivers take advanced tests and be re-tested regularly but I doubt it will happen.
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bmb, but see my post in the general section specifically on phone type devises.
Many of the very latest cars now being sold have abandoned the conventional push button radio/CD controls, and instead are controled through your digital communication device via Bluetooth. My concern is that this new development might actually encourage more phone use whilst driving not less.
I did add the rider though that I might well be not understanding it properly. if so I apologise for raising it.
TF
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TF, did you see my response to you in the other thread?
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Yes in the last few years it's fairly steady. But if you look at the last 10, 20 years + you will really see a reduction. Which really shows that more and faster cars don't actually cause more fatalities.
I do hope your not saying that we have less fatalities because we drive faster or better??
Neither is the case, the reason for less people being killed on our roads is down to better built vehicles, how many airbags was the in the average car 15 years ago, how many now in the average car?, air bag, better crumple zones and the like are the main
reason for less deaths not us humansKev
I think that more comprehensive driving tests have helped a small amount in making drivers safer. But you make a good point about cars being much safer.
But even if cars could be made so the occupants survive no matter how fast they crash at it doesn't fix the root cause that most crashes are the fault of the driver and not the speed they are traveling at.
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As someone who has investigated accidents then I have to say speed is often a contributary factor in many accidents. At speed things happen faster and you have less time to react. The point at which you lose control is easier to reach and in others may fail to see you in time. In general driving too fast increases the risk.
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TW. Yes, and I do appreciate that my lack of knowledge of the new technology is a significant drawback. But I don't think that i am alone in that. I suspect that new owners might well spend an unhealthy amount of time engrossed in it as apposed to dead
ahead!TF
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They are not higher for any typical U.K. Type rig. In fact slightly lower on Motorways. They are only legal, for some perverse reason, when a van is puled by a totally inadequate, if legal, tow car. I have no knowledge or figures, but I would think doing
130 kph with this sort of rig is likely to result in more serious accidents, at the very least.0 -
Greygit, Your comment re higher towing speed limits in France is very out of date. Generally speaking their limits are now lower. I think quite a few UK tourists visiting France are still unaware of the new lower limits. It is a very complicated picture
I believe.TF
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France is 56mph limit on the Motorways for most caravanners, most outfits like mine exceed the 3.5t gross train mass of the car/vehicle.
If under, the outfit can be towed at the 'solo' limit and this makes nonsense of the law really as a small car and largeish caravan coming in at under 3.5t gross train mass could legally tow at 80mph.
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I would like to point out that outfits with a less than 3.5t mass train weight are not necessarily dangerous!.
My car which weighs 1596Kg very safely tows my Caravan which weighs 1250KG MTPLM!. Plus it's not exactly a small caravan at 6.5m long.
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But French law is not interested in the weight of your caravan or trailer, only your vehicle to determine the speed limit when towing.
My Freelander 2 GVW is 2505kg fully loaded.
My towing limit of the car is 2000kg
My Gross Train Mass is 4505kg so I'm over the 3.5t limit and automatically reduced to 56mph even if I had a little box trailer behind me.
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I would like to point out that outfits with a less than 3.5t mass train weight are not necessarily dangerous!.
But, refering to French Autoroute limits, each tonne of towed mass at 81 mph as allowed for puny cars, has over twice the kinetic energy of that same mass towed at the 56 mph limit for more capable vehicles; and some argue the speed limits are there for safety reasons!!
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I would like to point out that outfits with a less than 3.5t mass train weight are not necessarily dangerous!.
But, refering to French Autoroute limits, each tonne of towed mass at 81 mph as allowed for puny cars, has over twice the kinetic energy of that same mass towed at the 56 mph limit for more capable vehicles; and some argue the speed limits are there for
safety reasons!!The point I was making is that an outfit less than 3.5t can still be just as stable and safe as one that is more than 3.5t and the car doesn't have to be too small or unsuitable. My car for example is slightly longer than a freelander 2.
But I agree that having such a big difference in speed limit due to an arbitrary weight limit is not very logical.
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I would like to point out that outfits with a less than 3.5t mass train weight are not necessarily dangerous!.
But, refering to French Autoroute limits, each tonne of towed mass at 81 mph as allowed for puny cars, has over twice the kinetic energy of that same mass towed at the 56 mph limit for more capable vehicles; and some argue the speed limits are there for
safety reasons!!The point I was making is that an outfit less than 3.5t can still be just as stable and safe as one that is more than 3.5t and the car doesn't have to be too small or unsuitable. My car for example is slightly longer than a freelander 2.
But I agree that having such a big difference in speed limit due to an arbitrary weight limit is not very logical.
It is not the outfit that has to be less than 3.5 tonnes but the GTM for the vehicle involved. If your car when fully loaded, plus the weight of what it can legally tow comes to more than 3.5 tonnes the lower limit applies. It does not matter one jot to
the gendarme that your rig is under 3.5 tonnes, he can still issue an on the spot fine,0 -
But he doesn't.
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Greygit, Your comment re higher towing speed limits in France is very out of date. Generally speaking their limits are now lower. I think quite a few UK tourists visiting France are still unaware of the new lower limits. It is a very complicated picture
I believe.TF
So I'll feel at home towing at 56 mph which is what I do naturally. What is the biggest killer on the roads today? - the mobile phone I believe!
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As my total weight will be in the 4000t region and I'm also a towing newbie I will be keeping my speed to the 56-60b region but as I have witnessed on numerous trips through France in our Motorhomes a lot of Caravans are driven at greater speeds than in
the UK. So my question still stands, does anyone know if there are more caravan related accidents in France than in the UK ?I agree re, the mobile phones, most of the time I switch mine off while driving.
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I use a hands free car phone as my work requires me to answer calls in the car.
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I use a hands free car phone as my work requires me to answer calls in the car.
Write your comments here...you are still not concentraiting on the the road and and your "daugnter"
should take the calls so that you can drive
safely
Write your comments here...o
I use a hands free car phone as my work requires me to answer calls in the car.
Write your comments here...you are still not concentraiting on the the road and and your "daugnter"
should take the calls so that you can drive
safelyWrite your comments here...She does when the calls come through on her own phone. However, when they come through on mine, the speaker is too far away from her to be able to answer.
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The worst of it, is when you get unsolicited advertising calls on the car phone, such as calls about missold PPI and sometimes from a machine. Sometimes they call repeatedly about the same advertising over and over again. However, recently I've been using the call reject facility on my phone where you can block callers that are repeatedly pestering you by listing their number on the call reject list. That has significantly cut down on such irritating and time wasting calls.
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