No matter how many times people say that the speed at which they were driving “crept up on them,” speeding is a choice – a dangerous choice — that each driver makes each time s/he gets behind the wheel.
Whether you consciously decide, “today I am going to speed down the highway,” for whatever reason, or you allow
yourself to become distracted and ignore your driving speed, or you choose to race the car beside you, speeding is a choice. Further, speeding is rarely without consequences of some kind. Often someone is hurt or killed, but more often, every time we speed, we strengthen the emotional and mental patterns that allow us to think our speeding is harmless. This eventually makes us less conscious of our speed and further insulates us from the potential dangers.
We tend to define speeding in terms of the posted speed limit on a given roadway. Yet driving at the posted speed is actually speeding when weather, lighting, or road conditions make it dangerous to do so.
In 2017 in Virginia, 23,952 crashes were attributed to speeding. These crashes resulted in 12,941 injuries (some quite serious) and 318 deaths. But the effect of the speeding-caused crash has a ripple effect through the families, co-workers, friends, neighborhoods, and more of every person killed or injured. The speeding driver in each case will carry the memory, the guilt, and the loss of the crash forever. Speeding is, indeed, a dangerous choice.
There are far more cases of speeding than there are speeding-related crashes in any given time. Every case of speeding puts many others in danger. Think about the person stepping off the curb to cross a street when a car speeds through an intersection. Think about the school children waiting at the curb until the school bus arrives. What would happen to them if a speeding car lost control and jumped the curb. Think about the passenger in a car rear-ended by a speeding vehicle whose live will never be the same due to the traumatic brain injury sustained in the crash.
The most common reasons given for speeding are:
- Emerging from traffic congestion is cited by many as a reason for trying to regain lost time.
- Running late for some appointment or engagement. Somehow, people are able to justify the danger and risk to others as a preferable outcome to arriving late for work.
- I won’t get caught/no one will know. Perhaps because we believe subconsciously that we are invisible when inside a vehicle. Some people begin to think that this “invisibility” means that they will not be caught speeding, that it somehow protects them from an accident, and that no one will know they have been speeding.
- Conscious or unconscious disregard for people who could be hurt by their driving. Unfortunately, unlike most people who only rarely drive at excessive speeds, some people drive aggressively and recklessly all the time.
For more than 20 years, speeding has been involved in roughly 33 percent of all motor vehicle fatalities.
It is important for every driver to remember that there are risks of some kind associated with every instance of speeding. These risks include:
- Increased likelihood of losing control of the vehicle.
- Some level of undermining the effectiveness of the passenger/driver safety technology and equipment in the vehicle.
- Requirement of additional stopping distance.
- Physical, emotional and economic consequences of a speed-related crash.
- Increased likelihood of more serious injuries in the event of a crash.
Speeding is a Dangerous Choice. In 2017 in Virginia, 23,952 crashes were attributed to speeding. These crashes resulted in 12,941 injuries (some quite serious) and 318 deaths.
If you or a loved one has been injured by a speeding driver, you have the right to seek appropriate financial compensation for your hurts and harms, lost wages, medical expenses, pain and suffering, and perhaps more. Call Altizer Law, P.C., for you free initial consultation and case assessment with Bettina Altizer, a trusted Roanoke, VA based auto accident attorney who has earned a reputation as a fierce fighter for the rights of her clients and for the justice they deserve.
