Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer Blog
Want to make a resolution in 2011 that could safe your life, the life of a loved one or the life of a total stranger: Vow to watch your speed and reduce your risk of a serious or fatal Chicago car accident.
Speed or the pace in which we do things seems to be of growing importance in our society each and every day. We race at home in the morning so that we can then rush to work. Then once we have occupied 8-10 hours of our day at work we rush to run errands, pick up or transport kids to activities, and race home to do chores before we hit the pillow at night. At this pace, it’s no wonder that, as Chicago accident attorneys, we see so many accidents caused by speeding.The 2008 report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration indicates that we have not slowed down in the last 10 years. Alarmingly, nationwide from 1998-2008, we have not gone below 10,000 fatal crashes involving speed.
The NHTSA offered the following speeding statistics from 2008:
-1/3 of all fatal crashes involved speeding.
-Speed-related costs in the United States total $44,193 a minute.
-A monthly average of just under 1,000 people died in speeding accidents.
-16% of property only damage was the result of speeding.
-Males had a tendency to speed more than females.
-A correlation seemed to exist for males as their driving age increases, their chance of being in a fatal speeding crash decreased over time.
– Male drivers between the ages of 15-24 reported almost 40% of fatalities due to speeding.
According to the NHTSA, 31% of all fatal crashes in 2008 involved speeding nationwide. Unfortunately, Illinois is a state that bumps up this average as the recorded fatalities involving speeding crashes was slightly higher at 37%.
Speeding decreases a driver’s reaction time to an incident. Speeding increases your stopping distance. If the driver in front of you suddenly stops; you will need more distance to stop, especially if you are going faster than the driver in front of you. Speeding pushes the limits of your vehicle and roadway safety system. Barriers that can stop a vehicle at 55 mph might not be effective at 100 mph.
And the laws of physics make each mile an hour that much more deadly in the event of an accident. So the probability of death, disfigurement or debilitating injury doubles for every 10 miles per hour over 50 mph that a vehicle travels.
So do yourself a favor in 2011, and slow down.
If you are involved in an accident, the experienced Chicago car accident attorneys at Abels and Annes offer free consultations to discuss your rights. Call (866) 99-ABELS to speak directly to an Illinois injury lawyer now.