The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released the results of a safety study on reducing speeding-related passenger vehicle crashes on the nation’s roads.
In the study, the NTSB links speeding to 112,580 passenger vehicle highway crash fatalities between 2005-2014. And it notes that although drivers are aware that speeding is a threat to safety, they also acknowledge it is a common driving behavior in the US.
“You can’t tackle our rising epidemic of roadway deaths without tackling speeding,” said NTSB Acting Chairman Robert L. Sumwalt, “and you can’t tackle speeding without the most current research. Speed kills. This study examines how it kills and what actions can be taken to save lives and prevent speeding-related crashes.”
According to the NTSB, the relationship between speed and crash involvement is complex and is affected by a number of factors, however, speed – and therefore speeding – increases crash risk both in terms of the likelihood of being involved in a crash and in terms of the severity of injuries sustained by those involved in speeding-related crashes.
The NTSB recommends completion of all actions in the DOT 2014 Speed Management Program Plan, assessment of the effectiveness of point-to-point speed enforcement in the U.S. and incentivizing passenger vehicle manufacturers and consumers to adopt intelligent speed adaptation systems. It also recommends increasing the adoption of speeding-related Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria Guideline data elements and improving consistency in law enforcement reporting of speeding-related crashes.
In the study, the NTSB also recommends action from seven states that prohibit automated speed enforcement, 28 states without automated speed enforcement laws, and 15 states with automated speed enforcement restrictions. The recommendations to the states—to remove barriers to the use of automated speed enforcement—are based on the findings that it is an effective but underused countermeasure.
The full report will be available on the NTSB website soon.
