NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — From city streets to rural highways, speeding has become a growing threat on America’s roadways. Crash data shows passengers, pedestrians and drivers of other vehicles are being put at risk as well as the speeding driver. For the past two decades, speeding has been a factor in about one-third of all motor vehicle fatalities nationwide, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). An effort by the Kansas Highway Patrol to work on the most egregious of these offenders appears to be shelved for the 2024 legislative session.
"Senate Bill 476, which was the Highway Patrol's bill that talked about license restrictions as penalties for speeding over 100 miles an hour, it did pass the Senate Transportation Committee, but did not get over the line for a debate and vote in the full Senate," said Shawn Steward with AAA Kansas.
According to Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) crash statistics, there were more than 52,000 speed-related crashes, resulting in 836 deaths and nearly 22,000 injuries on Kansas roads between 2013 and 2022.
"Speeding is definitely a problem," Steward said. "Excessive speeding is certainly out there and pretty commonplace. The Highway Patrol has been publicizing a lot of their hundred mile per hour plus citations along the interstates. They are looking at an average of more than 3,200 citations for 100 miles or more over the past three years."
KDOT says costs associated with Kansas crashes involving speeding drivers amounted to more than $1.9 billion in 2022.
"It's a safety thing," Steward said. "We have wide open highways and it's fun to let it loose, but it's definitely not safe to do."
The most recent AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety’s Traffic Safety Culture Index found that while a majority of respondents believe driving through a red light (83%) or driving aggressively (89%) is very or extremely dangerous, that wasn’t the case when the same question was posed about speeding.
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