The Consequences of Excessive Speed
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), motor vehicle crashes involving excessive speed killed 11,775 people in 2023 alone. Behind every one of those numbers is a family shattered, a career ended, or a life permanently altered by a collision that never should have happened.
While speeding is often associated with young, inexperienced drivers—and data shows that young males are indeed the most likely to speed—it is a pervasive issue across all demographics. From busy parents rushing to drop off their kids at school to truckers struggling to meet tight delivery deadlines, the temptation to speed is simply too great for too many.
Why is speeding so dangerous? Simply put, it does something terrifying to the act of driving: it steals reaction time. At 55 mph, it takes the average vehicle about the length of a football field to come to a complete stop. At 70 mph, that distance increases by almost 40%.
Excessive speed doesn’t just increase the likelihood of a crash—it determines how devastating that crash will be. Even a small increase in mph results in a massive increase in the energy that a vehicle—and the human bodies occupying it—will absorb in the event of a crash.
What Counts as Speeding?
After a car crash, the question of speeding is often reduced to whether the at-fault driver exceeded the posted speed limit. But in reality, traffic safety authorities and crash investigators define speeding more broadly. Depending on the specific circumstances, a driver may also be considered to be speeding if they:
- Maintained their speed despite heavy traffic or sudden slowdowns.
- Failed to slow down in rain, fog, ice, or other poor weather conditions.
- Drove too fast through construction zones, school zones, or residential areas.
- Continued at highway speeds where visibility, road design, or congestion clearly require caution.
Speeding isn’t just reflected in a vehicle’s speedometer. Drivers are expected to adjust their speed to what’s happening around them. When they don’t, they deserve to be held accountable for any harm that results from their negligence.
Common Injuries in Speed-Related Car Crashes
Because speed-related car crashes typically generate far more force than other types of motor vehicle crashes, they’re often among the most catastrophic from an injury standpoint. In fact, when speed is the main contributor to a crash, vehicle occupants face a significantly higher risk of:
- Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs):Â Even a “mild” concussion can disrupt memory, mood, and sleep, while severe TBIs can strip away a victim’s independence and rob them of their ability to work.
- Spinal cord injuries and serious back trauma:Â High-speed impacts frequently damage the spine, leading to herniated discs, nerve damage, chronic pain, or paralysis. Victims often require extensive surgery, long-term rehabilitation, and ongoing pain management, with no guarantee of full recovery.
- Severe fractures and crush injuries:Â The force generated by a high-speed collision can shatter bones, collapse limbs, or pin occupants inside their vehicles. Despite intensive medical intervention, many victims cope with limited mobility for months, and even years, after the crash.
- Internal organ damage and internal bleeding:Â Some injuries aren’t immediately visible, including damage to the lungs, liver, spleen, or kidneys. Without medical treatment, they can cause severe and potentially fatal complications.
- Burns, deep lacerations, and disfigurement:Â Speed-related crashes trigger airbag deployment, shatter glass, cause metal intrusion, and can potentially spark fires that leave victims with serious burns or permanent scarring.
- Amputations and crush injuries:Â In the most violent crashes, limbs may be severed or damaged to the point where amputation is medically necessary.
What Is My Case Worth?
If you have been seriously hurt by a speeding driver, it can be difficult to see a path forward. How will you pay your medical bills when you’re unable to work? What do your injuries mean for your future, your quality of life, and your family’s financial security?
Under the laws of Arkansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma, you are legally entitled to pursue compensation for everything a negligent driver has taken from you—not just your immediate damages, but the full scope of your losses—physical, financial, and emotional:
- Emergency treatment, hospital care, surgery, and rehabilitation:Â This includes ambulance transport, emergency room treatment, hospitalization, surgical procedures, inpatient or outpatient rehabilitation, and physical therapy required to stabilize and treat your injuries.
- Ongoing and future medical needs:Â Many injuries caused by high-speed crashes require continued care long after the initial recovery period. This can include follow-up visits, pain management, additional surgeries, prescription medications, assistive devices, and future treatment recommended by your doctors.
- Lost wages:Â Compensation for income you were unable to earn while recovering from your injuries, including missed workdays, extended medical leave, or time away from work for treatment and rehabilitation.
- Diminished earning capacity:Â If your injuries prevent you from returning to your previous job, reduce the number of hours you can work, or limit your ability to earn the same income in the future, the law allows recovery for that lost earning potential.
- Physical pain and emotional suffering:Â Speeding crashes often leave victims dealing with chronic pain, reduced mobility, anxiety, trauma, sleep disruption, and emotional distress. These losses are real, and the law recognizes their impact.
- Permanent injury, disability, or disfigurement:Â When a speeding crash results in lasting impairment, scarring, or loss of bodily function, compensation may reflect how those permanent changes affect your daily life and independence.
- Loss of enjoyment of life:Â Serious injuries can take away the ability to participate in hobbies, family activities, and routines that once defined your quality of life. These losses are compensable under the law.
- Property damage and out-of-pocket expenses:Â This includes repair or replacement of your vehicle and personal property, as well as expenses such as transportation costs, medical equipment, or household assistance related to your injuries.
If you lost a loved one to a speeding driver, you may also have the right to pursue damages for their wrongful death, including funeral and burial expenses, loss of financial support, loss of companionship and guidance, and the mental anguish suffered by loved ones left behind.
Unfortunately, it’s been our experience that the at-fault driver’s insurer usually has other priorities after a crash—limiting payouts and protecting profits, no matter how severe and life-altering your injuries might be. If you’re going to win all the compensation you deserve, you need a tenacious advocate with the knowledge, experience, and resources to successfully take on powerful insurance companies and their formidable legal teams.
When Caddell Reynolds takes a case, we take it personally. Driven by a relentless determination to win, our Arkansas car accident attorneys level the playing field, and they won’t back down in their quest to secure the results you need to move on with your life.
Our Arkansas Car Accident Lawyers Are Here for You
Our Arkansas car accident lawyers bring more than 100 years of combined legal experience to every case they handle. We understand what you’re facing, and we’re all too familiar with the pressure tactics insurers use to deny victims and their families the compensation they’re owed. When you partner with Caddell Reynolds Law Firm, you get a team of attorneys personally invested in your well-being, and who won’t be intimidated by insurance companies and other powerful entities working against your interests.
Don’t take on this fight alone. Call 800-671-4100 or contact us through our website to schedule a free consultation. We’ll listen to your story, make sure you understand your options, and explain what it will take to win your case.
