St. Louis has a higher rate of people killed in traffic accidents involving speeding drivers than most every other U.S. city. In a recently released survey, only six cities in the country rated higher for speeding deaths as a percentage of all fatal car crashes between 2013 and 2017. Only two of those cities are bigger, population-wise, than St. Louis: Cleveland and Washington, D.C.
Compare Auto Insurance, an online automobile insurance resource site, examined historical data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and determined that St. Louis has among the worst speeding-driver problems in America (“U.S. Cities with the Worst Speeding Problem”).
St. Louis Deaths Caused Speeding Drivers
St. Louis, with its 121 deaths in speed-related crashes over the five-year span, did not register among the upper echelon of cities in terms of the number of people who were killed. But its percentage of deaths linked to speeding drivers versus all the fatal car and truck crashes placed the city in this undesirable Top 10 list.
Nearly half of all people killed in St. Louis traffic accidents between 2013 and 2017 (48.6%) died in speed-related crashes.
According to the Missouri Department of Transportation, statewide the number of people killed in crashes involving speeding drivers is rising. Between 2013 and 2015, 388 people died on Missouri’s roads in accidents related to exceeding the speed limit. Another 436 were killed from 2015 to 2017.
Missouri Fatal Crashes When Driving Too Fast for Road or Weather Conditions
But drivers exceeding posted speed limits were not the only contributors to Missouri’s fatal traffic accidents. For 2013 to 2015, 544 people in Missouri died in crashes identified as “driving too fast for conditions.” That number increased to 580 between 2015 and 2017.
Although not identified by MODOT, this group could include people driving too fast:
· When traffic is congested
· When the weather is bad
· In work zones
While St. Louis and Missouri have alarming data, speeding drivers involved in fatal car crashes is also a nationwide cause for concern.
In January 2019, the Governors Highway Safety Association – a nonprofit organization of traffic safety officers across the country – reported that the country has made no progress in reducing fatal traffic crashes due to drivers who are speeding.
The group noted that, in 2017, a little more than a quarter of all people killed in the nation’s traffic crashes that year perished in speeding-related crashes. That percentage, according to GHSA, has remained about the same since 2001.
The GHSA also linked speeding drivers to the nation’s steady increase of pedestrian and biker deaths the country has experienced in recent years. Just this month it relayed estimates that project 6,590 pedestrian fatalities for 2019, which would be the highest for the United States in over 30 years.
If you or a family member were walking or driving and were seriously hurt in a crash involving a careless driver who was speeding, speak to a motor vehicle accident lawyer about pursuing your legal rights to just compensation from those responsible.
The choice of a lawyer is an important decision that should not be based solely on advertisements.
Authored by Gray Ritter Graham, posted in Blog March 16, 2020
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