Most accidents are caused by bad driving rather than speed itself. The vast majority of drivers are sensible and constantly adjust their speed as they check the road and other hazards. Driving naturally involves hovering slightly above or below the speed limit while looking down momentarily to check your speedometer. Interestingly, most speeding fines are for just around 10% over the limit, suggesting that being overly fixated on speed can be a hazard in its own right.
While speed does increase the severity and likelihood of crashes, many accidents happen due to other factors like distracted or impaired driving, poor judgment, or failure to adapt to road conditions. Research shows that speed contributes to about 29% of fatal crashes in the US, but it’s rarely the sole factor. The risk increases exponentially as speed goes up, but slight speed variation around the limit is a common part of normal driving and not inherently dangerous if handled with care.
In fact, fixation on exact speed can distract from monitoring the environment, leading to slower reaction times. Drivers who focus too much on not exceeding limits can lose awareness of hazards ahead, ironically increasing risk. Good driving is about dynamic control scanning, anticipating, and adjusting not a rigid speed target. There’s a balance between respecting limits and staying mentally flexible on the road.
In both the US and UK, the vast majority of speeding tickets are issued for minor speed infractions, commonly in the range of about 10 percent over the posted limit. In the UK, the so-called "10% plus 2 mph" rule is widely followed as guidance by police forces, meaning drivers are typically only ticketed if exceeding the speed limit by 10 percent plus an extra 2 mph. For example, in a 30 mph zone, tickets generally start for speeds over around 35 mph. However, this guideline is discretionary and not a guaranteed protection from fines at lower speeds.
Data shows a significant portion of motorists exceed speed limits by small margins under free-flowing conditions. In Great Britain in 2023, 44 percent of cars exceeded the 30 mph limit, with many exceeding it by just a few miles per hour. Similar national surveys in the US reveal a high incidence of speeding within small ranges above limits, which form the bulk of detected offenses.
These small margin speed violations highlight how most drivers hover just above speed limits as part of normal, dynamic driving rather than extreme speeding. Enforcement targeting such minor excesses indicates that many tickets arise from small lapses rather than blatant reckless driving.
Overall, this pattern supports the view that strict fixation on exact speed limits may distract drivers and that minor exceedances are common and often inevitable in normal driving conditions. It underscores the importance of balanced enforcement focusing on genuinely dangerous speeding behavior while recognizing that small speed fluctuations do not necessarily equal unsafe driving.
Overall, the takeaway is that while speeding is a risk factor, bad driving behavior is the bigger problem. Most accidents are about driver errors beyond just how fast they’re going. Being sensible and alert matters far more than obsessing over hitting a precise speed mark.
