One in 10 drivers admit to extreme speeding in national survey

With national highway safety organizations sounding the alarm about an increase in speeding during the early months of the pandemic and launching programs to combat it, Erie Insurance commissioned a national survey to gauge drivers' attitudes and behaviors regarding speeding.

One in 10 drivers (11%) admitted to driving at extreme speeds (20 mph or more over the speed limit) much more often than normal during the early months of the pandemic. As for what they observed about other drivers, a third (33%) said it seemed like a lot more drivers than normal were speeding and of those, nearly six in 10 (57%) said they noticed more drivers going at extreme speeds.

According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, high speeds make fatal car crashes more likely because it takes longer to stop or slow down and crash energy increases exponentially as speeds go up. IIHS says that in 2019, the most recent year for which data are available, more than 9,000 deaths – or one in four car crash fatalities – occurred in speed-related crashes.

Click here to view the full results.