Slow down to increase your life expectancy
February 2, 2010
Tess Kalinowski
TRANSPORTATION REPORTER
We could be speeding our way straight to an early grave, according a new study that suggests we lose an average of 20 minutes off life expectancy for every hour we spend in the car.
That's because of the increased risk of a fatal crash, as determined by Toronto researchers, giving ammunition to advocates for lower speed limits. Living in the fast lane may save time but, statistically, 60 minutes at high speed could cost 80 minutes of your life.
Lowering the average speed on North American roads by even 3 km/h could eliminate 4 million collisions a year and save about $3 billion in property damage, according to researchers Donald Redelmeier, of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, and St. Michael's Hospital's Ahmed Bayoumi.
"If you speed up slightly, you will reduce your trip time slightly, but you increase your hazard penalty to a greater degree," said Redelmeier, whose research, was published in the Journal of Medical Decision Making on Monday.
The researchers used U.S. data to calculate the loss of life-years based on the average age of those who died in car crashes.
"Many (trauma) cases are due to excess speed but not due to excessive, wild speeding," Redelmeier said, adding that slowing down too much isn't the answer. "If you reduce by 10 km/h, you end up costing more than you're saving. Sure, fatality rates go down, but trip times would escalate excessively."
Toronto Star
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