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Comment by gpm | Hacker News Reader

With the 6 year old you are creating a situation where there is an (x != 0)% probability they screw up and accidentally die. When taking explosives on a plane there is an (effectively) 0% probability you screw up and accidentally blow up the plane. Very difference circumstance.

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But by speeding you're creating a much bigger than 0% probability you screw up and do something bad.

If the speed limits were set to the safest speed to drive at you would be right. They aren't though. They are, as the original post says, set arbitrarily.

Often they are set lower than the safest speed to be driving on that road (generally the speed that the rest of the traffic is traveling at). So by not speeding you increase the probability that you screw up and do something bad.

In California at least - the speed limit cannot be different (more than some statistical measure) of the real world speed people actually drive on the road. Theres a process for requesting a survey of actual vehicle speed for a street. If the measures speeds differ in a statistically significant way from the posted speed limit, the posted speed limit has to be changed.

Also, by speeding, you are adding to the kinetic energy available to cause mayhem and destruction if you do screw up. And remember, kinetic energy is proportional to the square of speed, so going twice as fast means your car has 4 times more energy.

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