HAVING witnessed some daft and downright dangerous examples of overtaking in the past few weeks it comes as no surprise to hear that many drivers are making such maneouvres at lethal speeds on single carriageway rural roads with disregard for the consequences.
Research undertaken by road safety charity Brake and Direct Line insurance has revealed that of 942 drivers surveyed, 47% admit speeding at more than 60mph to overtake on country roads at least once in the past year, with 23% confessing doing this at least once a month.
Incredibly, one in eight drivers interviewed also admit overtaking when they can't see what is coming in the opposite direction.
This worrying set of figures indicates that drivers continue to feel a false sense of security on rural roads, misguidedly believing that it is safe and enjoyable to drive at high speeds.
In reality, drivers are much more likely to die on a rural road than any other type, with speed and overtaking being major factors in causing deaths.
Brake believes it is high time to stamp on what it describes as an irresponsible and downright dangerous love of speed on rural roads adding that it is epitome of stupidity.
Direct Line adds that two people die on single carriageway roads every day, and at least some of these deaths could be prevented
Statistics indicate that in 2009, 749 deaths occurred on single carriageway roads with a speed limit of 60mph - that's a third of all road deaths.
And almost a third of people killed on single carriageways with a 60mph limit die in crashes where ‘exceeding the speed limit' and/or ‘traveling too fast for the conditions' are recorded as a factor by police.
But the most worrying statistic is that the risk of the driver dying in a head on collision involving two cars traveling at 60mph is around 90%. Even at 50mph, the risk of death is still a very high 65%.
If that does not tell us that careless overtaking is not worth the risk then I don't know what will.