Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter . It’s Tuesday, May 16. There’s a common factor in many traffic collisions, one that plays a vital role in how severe or deadly a crash ends up: speed. It’s basic physics: The faster we drive, the more force we create. Driving faster limits our field of vision and our response time — and means it takes longer to come to a full stop. That compounds the odds that hitting a person who is walking, biking or otherwise not traveling in a vehicle will result in severe or fatal injuries. An...