Facts to Know:
- One in four fatal collisions in Alberta involved a driver travelling at an unsafe speed.
- Speeding doesn’t always kill. Brain injuries are a common injury that results from speed-related collisions
- Speeding can cause long-term consequences that affect both you and your family.
- Speeding reduces the effectiveness of seat belts and other safety devices such as air bags and side impact beams.
- Demerits for speeding range from two points (exceeding the posted limit by less than 15 km/h) to six points (exceeding the posted limit by more than 50 km/h).
- Between 2012 and 2016, 444 people were killed and 10,574 people were injured in speed-related collisions in Alberta.
- Drivers aged 16-19 were more likely to have been speeding at the time of a collision than drivers in other age groups (2016).
- The most common improper driver action of drivers involved in casualty collisions who were travelling at an unsafe speed was running off the road or following too closely.
- Casualty collision-involved drivers who travelled at an unsafe speed were three times as likely to run off the road as drivers who were not speeding.
- More than half of fatal collisions (56.7%) involving a driver travelling at an unsafe speed occurred in a rural area.
Driving a few km/h over the posted speed limit:
- Decreases your field of vision and your peripheral vision
- Extends the distance required to stop your vehicle
- Increases the chances that you will lose control of your vehicle
- Increases the chance of death or injury if there is a crash