Just about everyone who has driven a car has done it — speeding. The posted speed limits indicate the maximum safe speed of a particular roadway, but that does not stop many Colorado drivers from exceeding those limits. For whatever reason, many people will risk being involved in fatal motor vehicle accidents in an attempt to get to their destinations a few seconds faster or to avoid slower traffic.
People speed for a variety of reasons. Most Colorado drivers can understand that being late may make a person decide to push the speedometer past the posted speed limit, but that does not make it safe. Just because a driver is running late does not give him or her the right to put someone else’s life at risk. Impaired drivers often end up speeding as well due to a lack of judgment, lowered inhibitions and a false sense of control.
Because of the anonymity being inside a vehicle in a sea of them provides, people who would otherwise be law-abiding citizens may decide to bend, or in some cases break, the law against speeding. Their behavior can become reckless or even aggressive behind the wheel in an almost Jekyll and Hyde manner. Some people do not need anonymity, lateness or any other reason to be aggressive in traffic. They have a reckless disregard for the other people’s safety and for the law.
When it comes down to it, why a person was speeding when he or she slammed into another vehicle may not matter if someone is killed. Even so, understanding why the person was speeding may help establish negligence in a wrongful death claim filed against a speeding and presumably at fault driver. The result could be an award of damages allowed by law in fatal motor vehicle accidents.
Source: nhtsa.gov, “Speeding“, Accessed on May 12, 2018