If you glance at your vehicle’s speedometer, you will notice that the numbers go pretty high. Far higher than you are allowed to drive on any road in the country.
You could argue a love of speed is ingrained into U.S. culture. Just think about how many movies feature a high-speed car chase or whose entire plot line is built around speeding vehicles. Yet, while speed sells, it also kills.
The faster you go, the worse a crash is likely to be
The faster the combined speed of two vehicles that collide, the greater the impact will be. That’s why you are far more likely to see a crumpled car by the side of a freeway than on the side of an urban street. Most drivers never reach high speeds in town. Either the traffic prevents them, or the lower speed limits and increased numbers of cameras and law enforcement officers stop them from trying.
How fast is too fast?
You should drive within the speed limit for a particular section of road at the appropriate rate for the conditions. In other words, you should not exceed the speed limit (unless permitted by law, such as a 10 mph grace period when passing another vehicle) and you may need to go much slower depending on weather, visibility, the road surface and the general flow of traffic.
While crawling along at 20 mph in a 60 mph zone on a perfectly sunny day could be dangerous, dropping to 5 mph in a 30 mph because there are a lot of pedestrians about (such as during a procession) might make perfect sense.
Doing your best to drive at the correct speed for the limit and conditions can reduce the chance that you’ll cause a crash, yet it can’t preclude the chance that another less careful driver may crashes into you. If they injure you, you can seek legal guidance to explore your rights and options under the law.
