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> there is no string of accidents or fatalities after decades of this.

Ignoring reality

A lot of people killed on the road

Once you are doing 40 or 50 any accident you do have with a pedestrian is almost sure to be fatal. Lower speeds offer more of a chance.

Not driving cars at all offers the lowest. There has to be a degree of nuance when evaluating this.

Ironically in my town, we did have a "string" (3 people in 5 years) of pedestrian fatalities. All of which took place downtown where people actually do drive 25.

Well its not a sure rule of thumb that lower speeds are safer. People die falling bad from standing too. But it sure as hell makes it a guarantee you kill someone if you hit them at that speed. Especially some of these newer suvs where the front end is effectively a wall at pedestrian height.

All it takes is for a driverless car speeding to hit a pedestrian for the industry to be dead in its tracks.