What share of U.S. traffic deaths involve speeding?

In 2024, 29% of U.S. traffic deaths were in crashes where police reported that a driver was speeding: over the limit, too fast for conditions, or racing. The share was 33 to 37% in the 1980s, fell to 26% in 2018 and rose to 29% in 2020. It depends on what officers record after a crash.

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Key facts

Measure: Percent of traffic deaths. Written from the data below.

  • The latest figure, for 2024, is 28.8%.
  • That is down 6.1 percentage points from 34.9% in 1982.
  • The highest was 36.8% in 1986.
  • The lowest was 26% in 2018.

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Source and date

Source
NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS)
License
Public domain (U.S. government work)
Data as of
Published

Citation

Chartly. “What share of U.S. traffic deaths involve speeding?” Chart. Data: NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), https://www.nhtsa.gov/research-data/fatality-analysis-reporting-system-fars (data as of December 31, 2024). https://chart.ly/charts/speeding-related-traffic-deaths (accessed November 5, 2026).

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The data

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The file has the numbers in this table, with the source, license and date. Please credit the source and Chartly. Developers can also get them as JSON (how).

Year Percent of traffic deaths
1982 34.9
1983 33.8
1984 33.3
1985 35.6
1986 36.8
1987 35.8
1988 35
1989 34.2
1990 32.9
1991 33.5
1992 32.2
1993 31.3
1994 31.1
1995 32.1
1996 31.2
1997 31.1
1998 30.3
1999 30.5
2000 29.9
2001 30.6
2002 32.1
2003 31.5
2004 31
2005 31.2
2006 31.9
2007 31.8
2008 31.4
2009 31.5
2010 31.8
2011 30.8
2012 30.6
2013 29.5
2014 28.4
2015 27.4
2016 27.2
2017 26.5
2018 26
2019 26.4
2020 29.3
2021 28.9
2022 28.5
2023 29
2024 28.8

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