Speeding Killed More People Than Alcohol Last Year — and Florida Records It in One Death in Nine, Montana in Four

In the 2024 federal crash file, 10,203 fatal crashes were coded speeding-related and 11,288 people died in them — 28.8% of all road deaths. For comparison, crashes involving a drinking driver accounted for 25.4%.

The alcohol figure is falling: 26.4% in 2023 to 25.4% in 2024, with 849 fewer deaths. Speeding is nearly flat: 29.0% to 28.8%, 625 fewer deaths in a year when total road deaths fell by 1,771. As a share of a shrinking total, speeding held its ground while drink lost some.

"Speeding-related" in FARS is broader than exceeding a posted limit. It covers four codings: over the limit, too fast for conditions, racing, and speed-involved with specifics unknown. "Too fast for conditions" is the single largest of them nationally — a driver within the limit on a road that did not allow it.

Among states with at least 200 road deaths:

• Montana 43.2%, North Carolina 41.8%, Connecticut 40.6%, Pennsylvania 38.8%, South Carolina 37.8%.
• At the other end: Florida 11.5%, Kentucky 13.3%, Ohio 16.6%, Mississippi 17.4%, Tennessee 18.7%.

Nearly four to one between Montana and Florida. Two states, the same federal coding manual, the same form.

The first thing anyone should say about a table like this is that it may measure paperwork rather than driving. FARS carries a specific value for that — Reported as Unknown — so the objection is testable, and we tested it.

The unknown share varies enormously: Nebraska records 38.0% of vehicles as unknown on this field, Minnesota 33.3%, Connecticut 31.6%, Mississippi 31.6%. Several states record it at 0.0% — Texas, Washington, New Mexico, West Virginia and Florida.

That last one settles it. If low speeding shares were an artefact of not recording the fact, Florida — at 11.5%, the lowest in the country — should be among the worst recorders. It records zero unknowns. And Connecticut, one of the sloppiest recorders at 31.6% unknown, has one of the highest speeding shares. The reporting gap is real and worth knowing about, but it does not explain the spread.

What that leaves is harder to measure from this file: road type, enforcement practice, and what each state's officers treat as a contributing factor when they fill in the form.

Year over year, the largest declines in the speeding share were Maryland (30.1% to 19.6%), New Jersey (33.4% to 22.8%), Massachusetts (38.0% to 28.7%) and Missouri (37.4% to 32.6%).

The largest increases: Nebraska (20.3% to 27.5%), Montana (37.0% to 43.2%), Connecticut (34.4% to 40.6%) and New Mexico (30.2% to 36.2%).

Movements of that size in a single year — ten percentage points in Maryland — are more likely to reflect a change in how the box is filled in than a change in how people drive. That is a caution about the table, not a reason to ignore it: the share tells you what a state records, and what a state records is what a court and an insurer will later see.