[JacobAziza]

Originally Posted by pete c

Speeding is a factor in the majority of fatalities. I would be willing to bet that in the very large majority of these cases, we are talking extreme speeds. People driving 5-10 over the limit, in normal conditions do not cause these accidents. Accidents at these speeds are caused by inattentiveness.

While less excessive speeds are less likely to cause fatalities than more excessive speeds, all speeding increases the risk of accidents, including fatalities:

"We found that the risk of involvement in a casualty crash... increased at an exponential rate for free traveling speeds above [37MPH]"
Speed and Crash Risk - Executive Summary

"When travel speed increases by 1%, the injury crash rate increases by about 2%, the serious injury crash rate increases by about 3%, and the fatal crash rate increases by about 4%"
Traffic Safety Center Newsletter Winter 2008, Volume 5, No. 1: Traffic Safety Culture: the role of speed

Actual studies of traffic accidents is more convincing to me than your personal opinion.

There are vehicles such as farm vehicles incapable of the speed limit. These vehicles require special markings or emergency flashers. I don't have an issue with them and they are rare enough in most areas that they are not an issue.

Actually, I was thinking more of a truck with a 4.10 rear end and no overdrive, on a 75mph limit road. So, maybe 60mph, not 15mph like a tractor would do.

If they are driving the limit and come around a turn and can't get their vehicle under control in time to keep from hitting someone moping along in front of them, they suck at driving and need to pay better attention. We know that these idiots exist. And knowing this, we should drive accordingly which means keeping to something approaching the speed limit in areas where they know that driving well below the limit could result in an inattentive driver causing an accident. A good example of this would be driving at night where depth perception is crap, or driving on roads with many sharp bends.

In the end, it really doesn't matter who was right or legal. We have to share the road and that is a two way street.

Again, as the two studies above show, driving faster increases overall risk.
A rear end accident has the impact force of the speed of the rear vehicle minus the speed of the lead vehicle. A head-on collision is the sum of their speeds (and a side-collision is the speed of the impacting vehicle only). By driving fast to avoid a rear-impact you have a small affect on the potential impact force of that accident, while having a large effect on the potential impact force of the more likely and more severe head-on and side impact. Driving faster gives you less reaction time and less braking distance.

Yes they can. And on roads with minimal shoulders this is certainly the way to do it. On roads that have wide shoulders, it is perfectly safe to slow a little more, put on your right blinker and allow others to pass. I have a toyota motorhome, so I get to practice this technique frequently when driving it.

Agreed. I do this to, when there are wide shoulders and no passing lane.