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High-speed crashes kill third most often in Illinois
Montana leads the nation with over 30% of vehicles in fatal crashes traveling at speeds of 80 MPH or more. Alaska has the second highest rate, and Illinois is in third place
A new study has identified the most dangerous states for fatal crashes at high speeds, with Illinois coming third.
The study was conducted by personal injury attorneys serving Louisiana Laborde Earles Injury Lawyers, utilizing the latest available data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on vehicles involved in fatal crashes between 2017 and 2021 where speed was recorded.
It calculated the percentage of vehicles that were traveling at speeds exceeding 80 miles per hour (MPH) to discover the states with the highest rates.
Here is a summary:
Montana emerged as the state with the most significant proportion of high-speed fatal crashes, where 30.37% of vehicles were traveling at speeds of 80 MPH or more, equating to 65 out of 214 vehicles involved in such crashes whose speed was recorded. Montana also had the highest percentage of vehicles recorded as traveling at more than 100 MPH before a fatal crash. In total 25 vehicles were found to be going faster than 100 MPH, which is 11.68%.
Alaska ranked second, as the study found there were 16 (22.22%) vehicles traveling at speeds of 80 MPH or higher, albeit out of a smaller total of 72 recorded vehicles.
Illinois stood third, with 16.27% of vehicles in fatal crashes traveling at high speeds, meaning there were 212 whose speed was measured at or above 80 MPH, out of a total of 1,303 vehicles in deadly collisions where speed was documented.
In fourth place is Connecticut, where 52 out of 333 vehicles in fatal crashes were recorded at a speed above 80 MPH, which works out at 15.62%.
The state with the fifth highest percentage of vehicles in high-speed crashes is Wyoming, reporting 93 vehicles going 80 MPH or above – 14.11% of the 659 vehicles whose speed was recorded in fatal accidents.
The state of Texas, while ranked sixth in percentage terms at 13.96%, had the highest actual number of vehicles involved in high-speed fatal crashes, totaling 306 out of 2,192 vehicles with recorded speeds.
Further down the list, Rhode Island in seventh saw 13.82% of vehicles (21 out of 152) in fatal crashes at speeds of more than 80 MPH, as well as the nation’s second highest percentage of vehicles that were speeding above 100 MPH, at 7.89%.
Eighth place New Jersey’s rate was 13.45% (53 out of 394), while in ninth place South Dakota the percentage was 13.06% (79 out of 605).
Massachusetts rounds out the top ten, with 12.22% of vehicles in fatal crashes reported to be traveling at high speeds, based on 38 out of 311 vehicles with speed recorded.
Commenting on the study, Digger Earles from Laborde Earles Injury Lawyers said:
“The dangers of speeding are clear for all to see, but this study highlights that many drivers are unable to resist the temptation to go way above the speed limit. At the national level more than 108,000 vehicles were in fatal crashes where their speed was recorded, and nearly 8,000 were found to be traveling faster than 80 miles per hour, while more than 2,000 were above 100 miles per hour.”
Methodology: The study analyzed data on vehicles involved in fatal crashes, specifically focusing on the number of vehicles traveling at speeds of 80 MPH or more. The percentage of such vehicles was then calculated against the total number of vehicles in fatal crashes with recorded speeds.
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Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.
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