Darth, here is what I found.....
http://think.direct.gov.uk/speed.html
•The risk of death is approximately four times higher when a pedestrian is hit at 40mph than at 30mph
This seems to be consistent with your old ad. So, that's not it.
I found this DoT 2010 report
http://assets.dft.gov.uk/publicatio...-rsrr-theme5-researchreport16-pdf/rswp116.pdf
Which has lots of data about pedestrian fatalities at various speeds (even formulae you can use to calculate probability of death :shock: ).
Chances of surving an impact if you are a pedestrian seems to depend largely on age. Children and adults fare quite well at 30mph but the eldery fatality rates are way higher:
At an impact speed of 30 mph, the risk of fatality for elderly pedestrians is 47%, compared with 5% for adults and 4% for children.
So, if people are give the impression from information films on TV that roughly 50% of kids hit by a car at 30mph are likely to be killed, that's not what this report seems to say. More like you have a 50/50 chance of surving if you are 60 years old or more?
Mind you, I suppose a lot of changes have been made to cars over the years - not just to protect drivers but to protect pedestrians. Also, car brake technolgy will have made a huge difference. Although, roads are busier and cars are faster, I get the impression that pedestrian fatalities when compared to number of vehicles on the road has probably decreased over the years?
What are your thoughts?
These are the public safety ad's I remember watching as a kid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HB0HcINjWs