Transport and Covid-19: responses and resources

Speed and Crash Risk

Inappropriate speed is responsible for 20 to 30% of all fatal road crashes. After reviewing the current knowledge on the relationship between speed and crash risk, this report analyses eleven cases from ten countries that have recently changed speed limits or introduced a large-scale automatic speed control. The analysis confirms the very strong relationship between speed and crash risk and that higher speed is associated with increased occurrence and severity of road crashes.

En français : Vitesse et risque d'accident : résumé du rapport en français

En español : Velocidad y riesgo de incidentes viales : resumen ejecutivo en español

Policy Insights

  • Reduce the speed on roads as well as speed differences between vehicles.
  • Set speed limits according to Safe System principles.
  • Improve infrastructure and enforcement if speed limits are to be increased.
  • Use automatic speed control to reduce speed effectively.

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