Driving too fast for conditions and exceeding the speed limit contribute to significant numbers of deaths, numbers of injuries, and costs. While Kansas laws generally specify acceptable speeds and penalties for violation, additional policy options could be explored.
Speeding Statistics
In information released in April 2025, the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) estimated 11,775 speeding-related traffic fatalities in the United States in 2023 (29 percent of total traffic-related fatalities), down from 12,157 in 2022 (28 percent of the total). Approximately 332,600 people were injured in speed-related crashes in the United States in 2023. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), USDOT, defines a crash to be speeding-related if any driver involved in the crash is charged with a speeding-related offense or if a law enforcement officer indicates that racing, driving too fast for conditions, or exceeding the posted speed limit was a contributing factor in the crash.
In Kansas in 2024:
4,611 crashes (7.5 percent) involved speeding;
70 people died in speeding-related crashes and people were injured in 1,494 crashes;
The estimated costs of those crashes exceeded $1.6 billion; and
Approximately 20 percent of the speeding-related crashes involved people ages 15‒19, and nearly 60 percent involved people ages 15‒34.
Preceding years show similar numbers:
| Year | Crashes | Deaths / Injuries | Costs ($ billions) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 4,354 | 80 / 2,105 | $1.78 |
| 2022 | 4,890 | 94 / 2,056 | $1.90 |
| 2021 | 4,479 | 76 / 1,976 | $1.50 |
| 2020 | 4,599 | 88 / 2,075 | $1.60 |
| 2019 | 5,773 | 93 / 2,203 | $1.64 |
(Source: Kansas Traffic Crash Facts, Kansas Department of Transportation)
In testimony provided to the Legislature in February 2025, the Kansas Highway Patrol (KHP) provided the numbers of citations troopers have issued for driving more than 100 miles per hour (mph) (see chart on next page).
Kansas Laws
Kansas law contains multiple provisions regarding lawful maximum speeds:
- KSA 8-1557 states, “No person shall drive a vehicle at a speed greater than is reasonable and prudent under the conditions and having regard to the actual hazards then existing”;
- KSA 8-1558 establishes maximum speed limits of 30 mph in any urban district, 75 mph on any separated multilane highway (increased from 70 mph in 2011), 55 mph on any county or township highway, and 65 mph on all other highways;
- KSA 8-1559 authorizes the Secretary of Transportation to alter speed limits based on information known to the Secretary;
- KSA 8-1560 authorizes local authorities to alter speed limits within certain parameters; and
- KSA 8-1560b authorizes the Kansas Turnpike Authority to establish speed limits on highways under its jurisdiction.
Fines for speeding are established in KSA 8-2118. Fines increase with the difference between the posted speed limit and the vehicle speed.
Proposed 2024 SB 476 would have created the separate traffic infraction of operating a motor vehicle at more than 100 mph, and 2023 HB 2146 would have increased fines for speeds more than 30 mph above the posted speed limit. Neither received a chamber vote.
Speeding as Reckless Driving
KSA 8-1566 states, “Any person who drives any vehicle in willful or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property is guilty of reckless driving.” Most states appear to have similar language. Virginia law also defines driving too fast for conditions as reckless.
In Perry v. Schmitt, 184 Kan. 758 (1959), 339 P.2d 36, the Kansas Supreme Court stated, “While speed alone is not sufficient to establish gross and wanton negligence, it is properly considered along with other facts and circumstances surrounding the occasion in determining whether defendant was guilty of wantonness.” A 2025 Dickinson County district court decision in which the court states the defendant drove away from an officer at 140 mph, and in which the court did not find a case for a charge of felony fleeing and eluding an officer, cites cases including Perry v. Schmitt and further states, “speed is to be considered with other facts and circumstances” in determining whether an action constitutes willful or wanton disregard for the safety of others; which other states’ courts interpret excessive speeding to be included was not available.
Two bills have been proposed in recent years to amend KSA 8-1556 to define reckless driving to include driving at high rates of speed: 2025 SB 113 (100 mph or 35 mph over the posted speed limit) and 2022 HB 2628 (40 mph over the posted speed limit). Neither received a chamber vote. At least two states and the District of Columbia specify speeds in their definitions: Connecticut, faster than 85 mph; New Hampshire, 100 mph or faster; and the District of Columbia, 20 mph or faster above the speed limit, and, for aggravated reckless driving, 30 mph or more above the speed limit or 20 mph or more above the speed limit and causing injury to another person, colliding with another motor vehicle, or causing $1,000 or more in property damage.
Countermeasures
NHTSA’s guide for states titled Countermeasures that Work includes information on several ways to reduce the numbers of speeding vehicles. The agency notes that lowering the speeds at which vehicles travel requires public engagement and understanding the relationship between speeding and unwanted outcomes.
Lower Speed Limits
According to NHTSA, “The effects of maximum (highway) speed limits on speeds, crashes, and casualties have been studied extensively over the past 40+ years. In general, there is significant evidence that when limits are raised, speeds, crashes, and injuries rise, and when they are lowered, speeds, crashes and injuries usually decline.” NHTSA reported benefits of lowered speed limits occur particularly in urban areas and with extensive public education.
Infrastructure to Slow Traffic
Roadway modifications have been found by the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety (IIHS) to be effective in slowing vehicles in an urban environment in combination with public outreach and enforcement. Those modifications can include chicanes that force vehicles to curve around them on an otherwise straight road, curb extensions to reduce crossing distances for pedestrians and narrow the vehicle lane at an intersection, and speed humps.
Automated Enforcement Systems
Automated enforcement systems (“speed cameras”) supplement other speed-slowing efforts by gathering specified data on speeders over a certain speed threshold in a specific place and generating citations based on that data. As of September 2025, the IIHS has found the use of speed cameras in at least 1 locality in 22 states: Alabama, Arizona, California (only in San Francisco), Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois (Chicago), Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota (Mendota Heights), New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia), Rhode Island, Tennessee, Virginia, and Washington. Hawaii authorizes their use statewide, as does Washington on state highways. Their use in highway work zones is authorized in Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware (I-95 only), Illinois, Indiana, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington.
NHTSA cites numerous studies showing reductions in speed, crashes, injuries, and fatalities where speed cameras have been used. A 2025 study cited by the IIHS found a 75 percent reduction in the number of speeding tickets over the first 18 months after speed cameras were installed in school zones in New York City.
States that allow speed cameras in at least one municipality
Intelligent Speed Assistance
“Intelligent speed assistance” (ISA) refers to a device system installed on a motor vehicle to limit the speed of the vehicle based on the speed limit where the vehicle is operated. The organization Families for Safe Streets is among those promoting ISA as a strategy to change the behavior of “super speeders,” those whose licenses have been suspended for speeding and other speed-related violations.
Two states and the District of Columbia, as of September 2025, have enacted bills to require ISA use under certain circumstances:
- Virginia (2025 HB 2096, effective July 1, 2026) requires a person convicted of reckless driving and found to have been driving more than 100 mph to enroll in its new ISA Program, and it authorizes the court to require such enrollment of any person convicted of reckless driving as an alternative to suspending the person’s driver’s license;
- Washington State (2025 Sub. HB 1596, effective January 1, 2029) requires people convicted of excessive speeding (10 mph over if the speed limit is 40 or lower, 20 mph over if the speed limit is higher) and applying for certain restricted licenses, under certain terms of probation, or as ordered by a court to drive only a vehicle equipped with an ISA device. The device must allow the driver to exceed the speed limit no more than three times a month; and
- District of Columbia (Act 25-406, enacted in February 2024) requires a person whose license was suspended and the violation involved a speed more than 20 mph above the speed limit to complete its ISA Program before a license or registration can be reinstated.
Connecticut, in 2025 SB 1377, has directed its Vision Zero Council and the Chief State’s Attorney “to study and make recommendations concerning the feasibility of leveraging [ISA] devices to address speeding and reckless driving in the state,” in partnership with a higher education or national transportation research entity if they choose to do so, and report to the Connecticut General Assembly in January 2026. Continuing Connecticut law requires attendance at a motor vehicle operator’s retraining program for a driver age 24 or younger who has been convicted of at least two moving violations, any driver older than 24 with three or more moving violation convictions, and any driver convicted of driving 75 mph (65 mph if in a commercial motor vehicle) in a highway work zone.
Illinois, in 2025 SB 1507, requires the University of Illinois Chicago Urban Transportation Center to conduct a study to include “an assessment of the effectiveness of psychological deterrence in reducing habitual speeding.”
By Jill Shelley and Walter Nelson.
See Transportation for more.
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