According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, speeding is a great factor in 31 percent of motor accidents in the United States. Speeding fatalities average 1, 000 Americans every month, and cost $40 billion each year in damages. In spite of statistics proving that overspeeding is a factor in one-third of all fatal crashes, motorists still continues to endanger their lives and the lives of others through overspeeding or driving too fast under bad road conditions.
Among the three most dangerous driving behaviors – drunk driving, speeding, and not wearing seatbelts – speeding is the one that gets least attention and is not advocated well. Speeding is one of the negative driving behaviors that is not taken seriously, either by the driver, police officers, or the law. Everyone drives over the limit, and judges report that those ticketed for speeding believe their reason for speeding is justified.
So, is this the reason why people drive dangerously fast speeds? Psychologists believe that speeding is an acceptable habit in society that rewards people for people doing things in a fast pace. For some, speeding is one way of taking control of what they think is an acceptable level of risk. A lot of people also tend to overestimate their skills in driving and underestimate the risks that speeding presents.
Speeding is a habitual behavior – although everyone believe that speeding a dangerous behavior, most still overspeed. Because of the dangers of overspeeding, there are many effective strategies that help reduce crashes caused by overspeeding. Such preventive measures are automated speed enforcement, highly-visible enforcement blitzes, road engineering, and many others.
Speeding is not only a problem in freeways, but also in local streets, thus resulting in many accidents and injuries. Injuries due to speeding can lead to expensive lawsuits, and personal injury attorneys know how to fight for their client’s rights. If you want to avoid lengthy and expensive lawsuits, there are ways that can make your driving safer: give yourself lots of time to get to your destination, make sure to drive based on the weather conditions, and use your common sense when driving.
Wow. What a crazy/scary thing to think about. It does make sense though.