—
We’ve all been there; you’re running late for work or driving down a dark, open highway, meaning it feels comfortable to push down on the gas pedal just a little harder.
And while speeding may not just mean the chance of an expensive speeding ticket, it does mean an increased chance of a catastrophic crash that could change your life, or someone else’s, almost instantaneously.
Many drivers underestimate the impact of speeding on their safety and the safety of the traveling public. In fact, the relationship between speed and severity of crash is not linear, as people often think.
Any slight increase in speed, no matter how fast, can have an enormous impact on stopping distance, impact force, and likelihood of losing control of your vehicle.
So, how much faster is dangerous? First, let’s explore how speeding results in car crashes and why it’s better to arrive at your final destination safely than to speed there.
How Speeding Impacts Crash Risk
Once you go faster, you have less time to react to objects and hazards that come into your trajectory of your vehicles path; essentially, you are decreasing your time to process any hazard or condition.
If a deer jumps out into the roadway, or another car suddenly brakes in front of you or it’s a dark, windy road and debris from a truck falls into the roadway, when you add mileage per hour you shorten your initial reaction time by that same increment. Driving at higher speeds can also increase the probability that you can lose control of your vehicle.
Even though you are statistically less likely to lose control while turning, if you are going fast enough and attempting to accelerate, or change lanes, or if you are driving on an unexpected road condition such as a pool of water, or ice or loose gravel, you will not have the time or the space available to regain control. The faster your speed is the more unpredictable your vehicle handling becomes as you are visually approaching “setting or pushing the limits” on control and handling.
Statistically, the rate of crash increases with increases in speed. For every 1 mph that average speed goes up, the crash rate increases by roughly 2-3%. The increased rate of fatalities in the crashes is much greater regarding average speed increases.
The Physics of Speed and the Impact of a Collision
Here is where the science gets real scary. Kinetic energy increases exponentially with speed not proportionally. Doubling your speed then doesn’t just double your force of impact; it quadruples it. A crash at 60 mph has four times the destructive force as a crash at 30 mph.
This means that, damage to your vehicle also increases substantially with speed. What may have been a minor fender bender at 25 mph, could total your car at 45 mph. Considering that there is only a 20 mph difference.
This quadratic relationship between speed and crash severity is why even small increases in speed generate disproportionate increases in danger and consequences.
How Speed Influences Stopping Distance
Your total stopping distance includes your reaction time and the actual distance it takes to stop your car. Total stopping distance deteriorates as your speed increases. At highway speeds, you are moving at roughly 88 feet per second (60 mph), which means that each split second of reaction time creates a lot of distance.
Because you are traveling at higher speeds, your braking distance increases significantly, even under ideal conditions. For instance, it takes about 136 feet for a vehicle traveling 35 mph to stop completely. It takes approximately 302 feet for that same vehicle to stop when it is traveling at 55 mph – that is more than twice the distance just to increase your speed by 20 mph!
Simply stopping from 35 mph takes 136 feet under good conditions, but stopping from 55 mph takes 302 feet, meaning, you need more than double the distance to stop when you increase your speed by only 20 mph.
Legal and Financial Consequences of Speeding
In addition to risky driving, there are legal and financial ramifications of speeding that can be imposed upon you long after any possible accident. Speeding tickets are more than an annoyance. They create a record that will follow you, and impact your insurance payments years later.
Higher insurance costs due to speeding violations could cost you hundreds or even thousands of dollars over an extended period of time. Insurance companies count speeding tickets as “negative driving behavior” and adjust your rates accordingly, and the consequences can remain for three or even five years after a violation.
Should you find yourself in an accident while speeding, it will certainly affect personal injury claims and also liability determinations. Even if you were not 100% responsible for the accident, should you be found to be speeding, it could annoyingly contribute to partial liability and lessen whatever compensation you receive.
Practical Tips to Prevent Speeding
The best way to avoid speeding is to allow for extra time to get to your destination. Once you ensure you have time, you will feel less pressure to exceed the speed limit.
Use cruise control when traveling on the highway or during long trips. This can allow you to maintain a consistent speed legally. Cruise control can also help with fuel economy and lessens the mental effort of having to constantly monitor your speed.
It is important to remember, the true cost of speeding is not just financial due to tickets and increased insurance payments – it is also your safety and the safety of others traveling on the same roadway.
Every Mile Per Hour Counts
Speeding may save you a few minutes getting somewhere, but it greatly increases your chances of a crash, serious injury, and all of the financial consequences that can last for years. Even a small increase over the posted maximum speed limit can greatly multiply the forces of a potential collision and make it much more difficult to stop in time to avoid a dangerous situation.
Drive smart, stay safe, and remember that being a few minutes late is infinitely better than not arriving at all.
—
