A new report by CoPilot has been released looking at the states with the worst speeding problem in the U.S. Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, and NHTSA, analysts at CoPilot ranked states according to the percentage of total traffic fatalities that involve speeding.
In Kansas, 26.6% of total traffic deaths involve speeding; that was below the national average.
Those numbers are favorable compared to other states, putting Kansas at #32 on this list.
In Kansas, the speeding-related traffic fatality rate per 100,000/population was higher than the national average.
In the past five years, Kansas has had 524 total traffic fatalities that involve speeding, among its 2,034 total traffic deaths. The maximum posted speed limit in Kansas is 75 miles per hour. The worst county for speeding in Kansas is in the northeast part of the state, Wyandotte County, which the report ranked as fifth-worst in the nation.
When lockdown orders from the COVID-19 pandemic went into effect across the country, car traffic declined significantly. But research from the Governors Highway Safety Administration (GHSA) shows that even though there were fewer cars on the road during this time, speeding and reckless driving increased. While the relatively empty streets might lull drivers into a false sense of security, speeding is still dangerous and claims the lives of nearly 10,000 Americans every year.
Speeding is responsible for more than a quarter of all traffic fatalities in the U.S. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) considers a crash to be speeding-related if one of the drivers is cited for a speeding-related offense or if an officer determines that driving too fast for conditions, racing, or exceeding the speed limit was a contributing factor in the crash.
While NHTSA data shows that both the share of traffic fatalities related to speeding and the speeding-related fatality rate have been declining in recent years, these rates vary at the state level. Nationwide, the average annual speeding-related fatality rate for the five year period from 2014-2018 was 2.97 per 100,000 people. However, at the state level, there is a statistically significant relationship between speeding-related fatalities per capita and the maximum posted speed limit in the state. States with higher posted speed limits often experience more speed-related fatalities.
Another significant factor in speed-related deaths is alcohol consumption. Data shows that over the past five years, 47% of all speed-related deaths involved a driver with a positive blood alcohol content (BAC). Among U.S. states, there is a strong positive correlation between the share of fatalities due to speeding and the share of drivers in fatal accidents with a positive BAC.
In light of the increase in speeding during COVID-19, researchers at CoPilot, a car shopping app that helps guide users through the buying process, wanted to examine which states and counties historically suffer from the most speeding-related deaths. The analysts used data from the NHTSA, the U.S. Census Bureau, and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety to rank which states have the most speeding-related fatalities as a share of all vehicle fatalities. It is worth noting that the data used in the analysis was collected from 2014-2018 and therefore does not reflect recent driving behavior in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
https://www.copilotsearch.com/posts/states-and-counties-with-worst-speeding-problem/
