Understanding Speed and the truth.

 

Road Safety Truth Sheet: Understanding Speed, Impact Forces, and Child Safety

Purpose:

To provide evidence-based, engineering-accurate information so policy decisions and public messaging reflect real-world causes of injury and death on our roads.

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1. The Physics: Speed Alone Doesn’t Kill — Impact Forces Do

Injury and fatality occur when the human body experiences force, usually from:

• Impact (sudden deceleration)

• Crush forces (vehicle rolling over a person)

These forces—not “speed” as a number—cause physical harm.

Higher speed increases crash forces, but even low speeds can be lethal in run-over incidents due to vehicle weight and visibility limitations.

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2. Why Low-Speed Run-Overs Kill Children

Child fatalities at low speeds usually involve:

• A child being unseen by the driver

• A vehicle reversing or moving slowly

• The child being run over, causing fatal crush injuries

• Large vehicle mass, high bonnet lines, and blind zones

These tragedies are visibility and design problems, not speed problems.

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3. What “Speed Kills” Gets Right—and Wrong

Right:

• Higher speeds significantly increase the risk and severity of road crashes.

• Speed management is important on public roads.

Wrong (or incomplete):

• It suggests speed is the sole cause of death.

• It hides the role of visibility, road design, and vehicle engineering.

• It fails to address low-speed driveway and parking-lot fatalities.

A more accurate public message is:

“Impact forces kill. Speed increases those forces, but vehicle design and visibility are critical for protecting children.”

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4. Evidence-Based Policy Recommendations

A. For Public Roads

• Set speed limits based on road design, not slogans.

• Improve road design to reduce crash severity (narrow lanes, roundabouts, raised crossings).

• Prioritise pedestrian-safe environments near schools and neighbourhoods.

B. For Driveways, Car Parks, and Residential Areas

Most child run-over deaths occur off public roads.

Key measures:

• Mandatory front and rear automated emergency braking

• 360° camera systems for new vehicles

• Public education on blind zones around vehicles

• Encourage driveway designs that separate play areas from vehicle paths

C. For Vehicles

• Improve vehicle front-end visibility standards

• Encourage lower bonnet heights where possible

• Expand child-safety technology requirements

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5. Why This Matters

Effective safety policy must reflect real-world human behaviour and accurate engineering principles.
Oversimplified slogans can unintentionally misdirect attention and resources.

When messaging and policy are aligned with truth, we get:

• Fewer fatalities

• Higher public trust

• Better long-term safety outcomes

Man

 He rises in the morning,

Puts the mask back on,

and walks into the world—

carrying a loneliness

so practiced

it no longer feels like pain,

just a shape

he was born to fill.

Imediate relaxation (wonder why a camp fire relaxes you)

 Light can have a powerful effect on your mind and body — it can calm your nervous system, shift your mood, and even guide your brain into relaxation states. Here are a few practical ways to use light to relax and gently stimulate your mind:

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🌅 1. Use Warm, Dim Light in the Evenings

• Why it works: Soft amber or red hues mimic sunset and help your brain release melatonin, the sleep hormone.

• How to do it:

  • Use smart bulbs or salt lamps and set them to warm tones (2000–3000K).

  • Turn off overhead lights and use smaller lamps or candles.

  • Avoid blue light (phones, computers, LEDs) 1 hour before bed — or use “night mode.”

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🌞 2. Morning Light for Mental Energy

• Why it works: Natural sunlight early in the day resets your circadian rhythm and boosts serotonin (the feel-good chemical).

• How to do it:

  • Step outside within 30 minutes of waking — even for 5–10 minutes.

  • If you can’t get sunlight, use a light therapy lamp (10,000 lux white light) for 10–15 minutes.

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🌈 3. Colored Light Meditation

• Why it works: Different light colors affect your mood and focus through subconscious associations.

• Try this:

  • Blue or green light: calming, good for stress or anxiety.

  • Purple or violet: meditative, introspective.

  • Soft orange or pink: comforting, emotionally warm.

  • Dim the room, put on a gentle soundscape (like ambient or nature sounds), and breathe slowly while gazing softly at the light.

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💡 4. Light Rhythm Breathing

You can sync your breathing with changing light:

• Use an app or lamp that brightens as you inhale and dims as you exhale.

• It naturally trains your mind into a parasympathetic (calm) state.

• Even a candle works — just watch the flame rise and flicker as you breathe.

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🪞 5. Mind Reflection Exercise

Sit in a softly lit space and reflect light gently (like off water, crystal, or a mirror). Focus on how the light moves — it helps quiet mental chatter while engaging your visual mind.

Margrets shoulder shimmy

Margret’s got a creaky joint

Her right side’s out of point—

But play a tune, she’s up to prance,

Half in pain, half in dance!

She twirls, she spins—oh what a sight,

Left side groovin’, right side tight!

The shoulder groans, but Margret grins—

That’s how every party begins!

She twirls, she spins—oh what a sight,

Left side groovin’, right side tight!

The shoulder groans, but Margret grins—

That’s how every party begins!

When the L Is Taken from Love

When the L is taken from Love,
It falls from high above.
A single letter lost in flight,
And all that’s left is ove — not right.

The warmth turns faint, the glow turns cold,
The story ends that once was told.
For love without its leading line,
Is just a word that lost its spine.

So guard that L — it stands for light,
For life, for lifting through the night.
Without it, hearts can’t stay in clover —
When the L is gone, love is over.

The Last Breath the medical paradime shift!

 

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In the quiet hour before dawn, when the wind still holds the scent of night and the earth waits between one heartbeat and the next, the old monk sat by the river. His breath rose and fell like the tide — slow, deliberate, knowing.

A boy came to him, eyes bright with questions too large for his small frame.
“Master,” he said, “why do people die?”

The old monk smiled, gazing at the mist curling above the water. “Because they must return their breath.”

The boy frowned. “Return it? To whom?”

“To where it came from,” said the monk. “Everything that breathes borrows the same wind. The deer in the forest, the fish beneath the river, the king in his palace, the beggar by the gate — all draw from the same invisible sea.”

He scooped a handful of water, then let it slip through his fingers. “When your time comes, you give it back. That is all death is — the moment your breath returns home.”

The boy thought about this as the years unfurled like a long road. He grew, loved, fought, built, and aged. Each breath carried laughter and sorrow alike, each exhale a whisper to the universe. He watched others take their last breaths — a dying bird, a fading friend, his mother — and he began to notice something: the air never grew thinner.

It was as if every breath ever taken still lingered — mingled, shared, alive.

When his own final hour came, he remembered the monk’s words. The air around him shimmered with the faint warmth of every creature that had ever lived. He smiled.

He exhaled once more, and this time, he didn’t draw another in. His last breath drifted away, unseen, to join the great current — the same one that would fill a newborn’s lungs, stir the wings of a sparrow, and ripple the surface of the sleeping river.

And so it went, as it always had.
All living things die of the same thing — their last breath — yet in dying, they return it to life itself.

MR POTATO

 The Lament of Mr. Potato 🥔

I’m Mr. Potato, with feelings quite deep,
My roots run in sorrow, not soil so steep.
My kin were once tubers, so plump and so round,
Now they’re salted and crisped — nowhere to be found.

They called themselves kind, those humans who chew,
Saying, “No meat for me — I’m vegetarian too!”
But mercy, it seems, stops short of my skin,
For they peel, slice, and fry every one of my kin.

Uncles in packets, cousins in fries,
Auntie in mash form — oh how she cries!
My brother was roasted, my sister puréed,
My family reunion was served on a tray.

So next time you munch on a chip in delight,
Remember our faces, our earthy plight.
For though we are spuds, with humble appeal,
We too have hearts — just not ones you can peel.