Page 16 - OHS, October 2021

TRAINING: MATERIALS HANDLING
On Route to Safe Material Handling
Letting people rush around as fast as they want seemed like a recipe for an increase in both the number and severity of car crashes.
BY RAY PREST
Periodically, someone will float a proposal to remove speed limits from American highways. The critical response is predictably skeptical, with pundits suggesting that a highway without speed limits is a disaster waiting to
happen, and the proposal is effectively squashed. In many ways, the skepticism makes sense. We know that drivers have limited
reaction times, and the faster people drive, the longer it will take them to stop. Letting people rush around as fast as they want seemed like a recipe for an increase in both the number and severity of car crashes.
But take a look at a highway without speed limits, and you will be surprised to see that the predicted rise in road incidents
16 Occupational Health & Safety | OCTOBER 2021
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