Speeding Accidents on the Florida Roads

Speed is the common thread running through Florida’s worst crashes. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration counts speeding as a factor in roughly 29 percent of all traffic deaths nationally, and Florida, with close to 400,000 crashes a year statewide and about 40,000 in Broward County alone according to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, has more than its share. I-95, I-595, the Turnpike, the Sawgrass Expressway, State Road 7 and University Drive are where Broward’s speed-related crashes cluster, and street racing on the wide suburban arterials in Pembroke Pines, Miramar and Coral Springs has become a recurring source of fatal collisions. If a speeding driver injured you, here is how Florida law treats the claim and how speed is actually proven.

What Florida law says about speed

Section 316.183 of the Florida Statutes does two things. It makes exceeding the posted limit a violation, and, separately, it requires every driver to travel at a speed that is reasonable and prudent for the conditions, regardless of the posted limit. Driving 45 in a 45 zone through a blinding afternoon downpour on I-595 can be unlawful speed. Florida’s default limits are 30 mph in business and residential districts and 55 mph elsewhere unless posted, with reduced limits in school zones. Speeding can also be charged as careless driving under section 316.1925, as reckless driving under section 316.192 when it shows willful disregard for safety, and as racing on highways under section 316.191, which is a crime.

In a civil case, a violation of any of these statutes is evidence of negligence that a jury may consider. It is not automatic liability, and the absence of a speeding citation does not mean the other driver was not speeding; officers often cannot determine speed at the scene without a reconstruction.

Why speed makes injuries so much worse

The energy in a crash rises with the square of speed. A collision at 60 mph releases four times the energy of one at 30, not twice. Stopping distance grows the same way: a car at 40 mph needs well over 100 feet to stop after the driver reacts, and at 60 mph more than 250 feet. For pedestrians the numbers are stark. Research by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety puts the average risk of death for a pedestrian struck at 23 mph at about 10 percent, at 42 mph about 50 percent, and at 58 mph about 90 percent. Speed also defeats the safety systems built into modern cars. Airbags, crumple zones and seat belts are designed and tested for moderate-speed impacts, and at highway speed they are overwhelmed. That is why speed-related crashes produce so many traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries and deaths.

Proving the other driver was speeding

• The event data recorder. Nearly every car built in the last fifteen years has a “black box” that records speed, throttle position, braking, steering and seat belt use for the seconds before a crash. It is the single best evidence of speed, and it can be lost when the vehicle is repaired, sold for salvage or crushed. A preservation letter to the other driver’s insurer should go out immediately.
• Crash reconstruction. Skid marks, yaw marks, crush depth, debris fields and the final rest positions of the vehicles allow an engineer to calculate pre-impact speed with real precision.
• Video. Traffic cameras at signalized intersections, dashcams, business surveillance systems, bus cameras and residential doorbell cameras capture more crashes every year. Most footage is overwritten within days or weeks.
• Witnesses. Other drivers and pedestrians who saw the car coming. Their contact information should be collected at the scene, because the crash report may not list them.
• Phone records. Speeding and distraction travel together. A driver who was texting at 70 mph is a very different defendant from one who was merely late.
• The crash report, with limits. The Florida Traffic Crash Report records the officer’s findings and any citations. Keep in mind that under section 316.066, statements the drivers made to the officer for the report are privileged and cannot be used in a civil trial, so the report is a starting point rather than the whole case.

Reckless speed and punitive damages

Ordinary speeding is negligence, which supports compensatory damages for medical expenses, lost income and pain and suffering. Extreme speed can be more. Florida allows punitive damages under section 768.72 when a defendant’s conduct amounts to gross negligence, meaning conduct so reckless that it shows a conscious disregard for the safety of others. Street racing, driving 100 mph on a surface street, or speeding while impaired are the kinds of conduct that have supported punitive damages claims. Punitive awards are generally capped at three times compensatory damages or $500,000, but the cap does not apply to a driver who was impaired at the time of the crash.

Your rights and your deadlines

Florida is a no-fault state, which means your own PIP coverage pays the first $10,000 of your medical bills and lost wages regardless of who was at fault, provided you get initial treatment within 14 days of the crash. Everything beyond that, including pain and suffering, is claimed against the speeding driver’s bodily injury coverage, and to recover pain and suffering you generally must show a permanent injury within a reasonable degree of medical probability. Expect the other insurer to argue that you were speeding too, or that you could have avoided the crash. Florida uses modified comparative negligence: more than 50 percent fault bars recovery, and anything less reduces it. Since 2023 you have two years from the date of the crash to file a negligence lawsuit, and the same two years applies to a wrongful death claim when a speeding driver kills someone in your family.

The Injury Advocates is a Plantation-based personal injury firm serving Fort Lauderdale, Broward County and South Florida. If a speeding driver hurt you or someone you love, call (754) 812-8444 or 833-DARFOOR, or send us a message. The consultation is free and you owe no fees or costs unless we recover for you. Learn more about our car accident practice and our catastrophic injury practice.