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In 2002, 13,713 fatalities -- about a third of all fatalities that occurred in motor vehicle traffic crashes were speeding-related, i.e., at least one of the drivers involved in the crash was speeding. This is the highest number of speeding-related fatalities since 1991, when 13,915 persons were killed in such crashes.

The geometry of the road plays a vital role in the occurrence of speeding-related crashes. In 2002, about 40 percent of speeding-related fatal crashes occurred while negotiating a curve, while slightly less than 20 percent of non-speeding related fatal crashes occurred under similar roadway geometry.

Driver impairment is highly correlated with speeding among drivers involved in fatal crashes. About 41 percent of drivers who were intoxicated (BAC=0.08+) were also speeding as compared to 14 percent for sober drivers.

A major proportion of fatal, speeding-related single-vehicle crashes occur on rural roadways. There has been a recent increase in the number of fatalities in speeding-related single-vehicle crashes that occur on local roads in rural jurisdictions.

Speeding-related fatalities as a proportion of total fatalities show a quantitative difference between the eastern and western halves of the United States. The western states show a higher proportion of their overall fatalities to be speeding-related as compared to the eastern states.

Between 1983 and 2002, New Jersey had the lowest overall proportion of fatalities that are speeding-related while South Carolina had the highest such percentage.