The Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) are launching a partnership to support the prevention of speed-related crashes.

GHSA and IIHS are working with the National Road Safety Foundation (NRSF) to award one or more grants in 2020 to develop and implement a speed-management pilot program. State agencies can compete for the grant by proposing an interdisciplinary, community-based program that combines proven and innovative countermeasures from the areas of engineering, high-visibility enforcement, communications, advocacy and policy.

“Our three organizations are teaming up because we need to rethink how we address speeding,” said GHSA Executive Director Jonathan Adkins. “We will be taking different approaches like engineering, enforcement, and community engagement and breaking them out of their silos to more effectively target speeding and ultimately change the prevalent culture around this dangerous driving behavior.”

More than 9,000 fatalities in 2018, or 26 percent of all crash deaths, were speed-related. High speeds increase the likelihood of a crash because it takes a driver longer to stop or slow down. Additionally, crash energy increases exponentially as speeds go up.