Who speeds?

Known Risk Factors and Variables Related to Speeding

The likelihood of speeding varies by gender and age: younger males are most likely to speed and likely to be involved in fatal crashes due to speeding (See Figure 3, adapted from source; NHTSA, 2016b). Therefore, males aged 15 to 34 are a high risk subgroup that could be directly targeted in order to make a large impact on all vehicle fatalities due to speeding.

Figure 3. Percent of speeding drivers in fatal crashes by age and gender, 2011

A positive correlation between speeding and sensation-seeking has been found for male drivers (Williams, Kyrychenko, & Retting, 2006). Speeders also rate potential negative consequences of speeding (e.g., getting ticketed or being involved in a crash) as less likely to happen and overestimate the number of other drivers who speed (Williams et al., 2006). Despite more fatalities occurring in rural areas, NHSTA has found that the percentage of fatalities due to speed-related crashes are not dissimilar: In 2013, 30% of rural fatalities were speeding related versus 28% of fatalities in urban areas (NHTSA, 2015). And in 2014, the most recent data available, 29% of rural fatalities were due to speeding-related crashes in comparison to 28% of fatalities in urban areas (NHTSA, 2016c).