A Guide For Reducing Speeding Related Crashes

Also available online via the Web pages of the TRB Cooperative Research Programs (www4.trb.org/trb/crp.nsf).

It is well-established that speeding represents a risk to public safety. Excessive speed increases the likelihood of crashing and the risk of severe injury in a crash. In 2005, more than 13,000 lives were lost in speeding-related crashes (NHTSA, 2006a). Reducing speeding is a high-priority objective and effective speed enforcement is an essential countermeasure to reduce speeding and lowering crash risk. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Federal Highway Administration have developed Speed Enforcement Program Guidelines to provide law enforcement personnel and decision makers with detailed information on how to establish and maintain an effective speed enforcement program. The guidelines were developed with input from many of the most successful law enforcement agencies in the United States and include information that can help establish an effective speed enforcement program, including details on: Program management, Problem identification, Enforcement countermeasures, Role of engineering, Public outreach and communications, Legislation, regulation and policy, and Program evaluation.

The tool kit will vary among jurisdictions depending on basic legal constraints, community attitudes, road system and traffic characteristics, and resources. The Transportation Research Board (TRB) undertook a study to identify the sources of safety improvements in other countries. Researchers do not have a complete understanding of the underlying causes of long-term trends in crashes and fatalities. Differences among countries are in part attributable to factors other than government safety policies. To identify keys to success, the TRB study committee examined specific safety programs for which quantitative evaluations are available and relied on the observations of safety professionals with international experience. The committee's conclusions identify differences between U.S. and international practices that can account for some differences in outcomes. The committee recommendations, which are addressed to elected officials and to government safety administrators, identify actions needed in the United States to emulate the successes that other countries have achieved. The recommendations do not comprehensively address all aspects of traffic safety programs but rather address areas of practice that are highlighted by the international comparisons and for which credible evidence of effectiveness is available."--Pub. desc.

Speeding is the number one road safety problem in a large number of OECD/ECMT countries. It is responsible for around one third of the current, unacceptably high levels of road fatalities. Speeding has an impact not only on accidents but also on the ...