Speed Management is Key to Road Safety

Reports, announcements, statistics from NHTSA, NTSB, FHWA, IIHS, and others related to Highway Safety
MSI
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Speed Management is Key to Road Safety

Post by MSI »

FHWA report comes to conclusion we (and CASR in Australia) have been reporting on for years!
  • Much progress has been made in transportation safety over the last several decades. Despite the large increase in traffic volume, the fatality rate decreased from 5.5 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in 1966 to 1.11 fatalities in 2019. Despite this success, reducing traffic speeds and speeding-related crashes and fatalities continue to pose some complex challenges. Early estimates show that fatality rates and speeding-related fatalities increased in 2020 during the COVID-19 public health emergency, compared to 2019, although 2020 was anomalous.

    Speeding as a Safety Problem
    • The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration defines a crash as speeding-related if any driver involved in the crash is charged with a speeding-related offense or if a police officer indicates racing, driving too fast for conditions, or exceeding the posted speed limit was a contributing factor in a crash. The most recent data from NHTSA’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) found that, in 2019, there were 9,478 speeding-related fatalities, 26 percent of total traffic fatalities for the year. For speeding-related fatalities where functional class was reported, 86 percent occurred on noninterstate roadways. Drivers in speeding-related fatal crashes were more likely to have previous convictions for speeding and/or alcohol-impaired (BAC .08 g/dL or higher) driving, previous crashes, and license suspensions or revocations compared to nonspeeding drivers in fatal crashes
see more on this topic and information on our related research with CASR in Adelaide, Australia Here is a graphics from the FHWA report:
speed distance relationship.jpg
speed distance relationship.jpg (78.42 KiB) Viewed 4836 times