From 2020 to 2024, 59,284 people died in speeding-related crashes on US roads, 28.9% of all 205,237 traffic deaths. Most of them did not die on a highway.
Interstates, freeways and expressways account for 10,393 of those deaths, 17.5%. Interstates alone account for 7,586, 12.8%, slightly fewer than the 7,736 on local roads. Almost half, 47.8%, happened on arterials: the main roads that link towns and carry traffic through cities, below the level of a freeway.
Where speeding is most often involved
Roads are classed by the job they do, from interstates down to local streets. Below the freeways, the share of deaths that were speeding-related rises as the roads get smaller, from 25.1% on principal arterials to 35.6% on local roads. Interstates and other freeways sit in between:
| Road type | All deaths, 2020–2024 | Speeding-related deaths | Speeding-related share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Interstate | 26,353 | 7,586 | 28.8% |
| Other freeway or expressway | 8,818 | 2,807 | 31.8% |
| Principal arterial | 61,077 | 15,312 | 25.1% |
| Minor arterial | 46,514 | 13,035 | 28.0% |
| Major collector | 32,965 | 10,221 | 31.0% |
| Minor collector | 6,589 | 2,224 | 33.8% |
| Local road | 21,713 | 7,736 | 35.6% |
More than a third of deaths on local roads were speeding-related, compared with a quarter on principal arterials. The gap is widest in the countryside: on rural local roads 38.1% of deaths were speeding-related (4,256 of 11,173), and on rural principal arterials 22.0% (4,301 of 19,520).
The crashes look different, too. On local roads, 81.0% of speeding-related deaths happened in crashes involving only one vehicle, such as a car leaving the road or hitting a pedestrian, compared with 46.4% on interstates and freeways and 43.3% on arterials.
These are shares of the deaths on each road type, not risks per mile. FARS does not record how much driving happens on each kind of road, so it cannot say whether a local road is more dangerous to drive on than an interstate.
Too fast for conditions on the highway
Police record what kind of speeding they saw. On interstates and freeways, the most common was driving too fast for conditions, which can be under the limit, for example in rain or fog: it was recorded in 52.3% of speeding-related deaths there. On arterials, exceeding the speed limit was more common, at 42.2%, against 37.7% for too fast for conditions.
Speed limits
A similar pattern shows up by posted speed limit. The share of deaths that were speeding-related is highest on roads posted at 30 or 35 mph and lowest on roads posted at 70 mph or more:
| Posted speed limit | All deaths, 2020–2024 | Speeding-related deaths | Speeding-related share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25 mph or less | 11,598 | 3,740 | 32.2% |
| 30–35 mph | 33,865 | 11,772 | 34.8% |
| 40–45 mph | 48,015 | 14,516 | 30.2% |
| 50–55 mph | 58,111 | 15,944 | 27.4% |
| 60–65 mph | 26,046 | 7,016 | 26.9% |
| 70 mph or more | 17,690 | 4,510 | 25.5% |
Where the limit was recorded, 52.2% of speeding-related deaths were on roads posted at 45 mph or less. The single most common limit was 55 mph, with 13,317 speeding-related deaths, followed by 45 mph (9,430) and 35 mph (8,165).
Speed limits are recorded for each vehicle, for the road it was on. For a speeding-related crash, this table uses the limit on the road of the driver recorded as speeding; for other crashes, the limit for the first vehicle in the police report.
Towns and countryside
Urban roads accounted for 35,639 speeding-related deaths, 60.1% of the total, and rural roads for 23,430, 39.5%. The speeding-related share was similar in both: 29.6% of deaths on urban roads and 28.0% on rural roads. The other 215 speeding-related deaths were on roads recorded as neither.
The longer trend
Speeding-related deaths rose sharply in 2020 and peaked at 12,498 in 2021. In 2024, 11,288 people died in speeding-related crashes, the fewest since 2019.
| Category | Deaths |
|---|---|
| 2009 | 10,664 |
| 2010 | 10,508 |
| 2011 | 10,001 |
| 2012 | 10,329 |
| 2013 | 9,696 |
| 2014 | 9,283 |
| 2015 | 9,723 |
| 2016 | 10,291 |
| 2017 | 9,947 |
| 2018 | 9,579 |
| 2019 | 9,592 |
| 2020 | 11,428 |
| 2021 | 12,498 |
| 2022 | 12,157 |
| 2023 | 11,913 |
| 2024 | 11,288 |
Comparable figures start in 2009.
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About these figures
A death is speeding-related if police recorded at least one driver in the crash as racing, exceeding the speed limit or driving too fast for conditions. It does not mean speeding caused the crash, or that the person who died was speeding. Where more than one driver was speeding, the kind of speeding and the speed limit are taken from the first of them in the police report; in only 39 crashes did two speeding drivers have different limits recorded. Road types are the federal functional classes recorded for the crash location; 1,208 deaths (363 speeding-related) on roads with no class recorded, or not in the state's road inventory, are left out of the road type table. The speed limit table leaves out 7,950 deaths (1,671 speeding-related) with no limit recorded and 1,962 (115 speeding-related) where there was no statutory limit or the crash was off the public road. What counts as speeding-related