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NHTSA - "Speed Shatters Life" Campaign |
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Think Fast... Exceeding the posted limit or driving too fast for conditions is one of the most prevalent factors contributing to traffic crashes. Speed is a factor in nearly one-third of all fatal crashes. Speed-related crashes cost society more than $23 billion a year.* Too few drivers view speeding as an immediate risk to their personal safety or the safety of others. Yet, speeding reduces a driver’s ability to steer safely around curves or objects in the roadway, and it extends the distance required to stop a vehicle in emergency situations. Crash severity increases with the speed of the vehicle at impact. Inversely, the effectiveness of restraint devices like air bags and safety belts, and vehicular construction features such as crumple zones and side member beams decline as impact speed increases. The probability of death, disfigurement, or debilitating injury grows with higher speed at impact. Such consequences double for every 10 mph over 50 mph that a vehicle travels. Many drivers don’t consider this. They slow their speed in residential areas, or when the weather turns bad. To them, a few miles over the posted speed limit is an acceptable risk. Their excuse -- other drivers do it. They believe the worst that can happen to them is to receive a speeding ticket. Drivers like this are wrong. Maybe even dead wrong, because driving too fast for conditions or exceeding the posted speed limit can kill you. *In 1994 dollars.
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