Key Takeaways

• Speeding can increase both crash risk and injury severity because drivers have less time and distance to react.
• Under New Jersey law, a speeding violation can be evidence of negligence, but it does not automatically decide civil liability.
• Vehicle data, roadway evidence, video, witness accounts, and police documentation may help establish a driver’s speed.
• High-speed crashes can cause brain, spinal, orthopedic, and other serious injuries.
• The strength of the liability evidence, injury severity, financial losses, and comparative fault can all affect a speeding accident claim.

A driver’s speed can affect their stopping distance, ability to react, force of any resulting impact, and seriousness of all resulting injuries. If you were injured because another driver was traveling too fast, a Cherry Hill speeding accident lawyer can investigate whether excessive speed caused or worsened the car accident and pursue compensation available under New Jersey law. 

How Does Speeding Cause and Worsen Car Accidents?

Speeding creates danger in two separate ways: it can make a collision more likely to happen, and it can make the consequences more severe when a crash occurs.

Speeding increases stopping distance and can increase crash severity; drivers traveling too fast may have less opportunity to respond when traffic suddenly slows, another vehicle enters an intersection, a pedestrian crosses the road, or road conditions change.

Speed also affects the amount of energy involved in a collision. A vehicle’s kinetic energy is proportional to the square of its speed, and as speed increases, substantially more energy may have to be absorbed by vehicles and their occupants during impact. Therefore, higher vehicle speeds are associated with more severe crash outcomes.

These principles can greatly alter the legal outcome of a speeding car accident in New Jersey, such as when an excessive speed crash in Camden County involves an intersection, curve, highway, pedestrian area, or sudden traffic slowdown.

Is Speeding Automatically Negligence in New Jersey?

No. Evidence that a driver violated a speed law can support a negligence claim, but a speeding violation does not automatically establish negligence in every New Jersey civil case.

Although a New Jersey court may allow violations of the speeding statute to count as evidence to determine negligence, speeding by itself does not constitute negligence as a matter of law.

That legal distinction means that a claimant generally needs evidence connecting the driver’s excessive speed to the crash and resulting injuries. Other conduct (such as failing to maintain a proper lookout or failing to reduce speed for conditions) may also be relevant, depending on how the collision occurred.

How Do You Prove a Driver Was Speeding?

A driver does not have to admit to speeding for excessive speed to become an issue in a personal injury case. Several forms of evidence may help establish how a vehicle was moving before impact.

For instance:

• Police reports and citations can identify observations made during the crash investigation. 
• Witnesses may describe a vehicle traveling unusually fast immediately before impact. 
• Surveillance cameras, traffic cameras, dashcams, or nearby business video may document the vehicle’s movement. 
• Physical evidence such as tire marks, vehicle damage, final resting positions, and roadway conditions may also be reviewed as part of a crash analysis.

Electronic vehicle information can sometimes be significant. Event data recorders may capture information from the seconds surrounding a crash, including pre-crash vehicle dynamics, driver inputs, braking information, and vehicle speed in systems that record those data. However, that event data should be considered with other evidence because individual systems have limitations.

What Injuries Result From High-Speed Crashes?

The damage from a high-speed collision injury can range from painful soft-tissue trauma to permanent disabilities. The greater the impact, the greater the potential for serious harm, although the actual outcome depends on factors such as collision direction, vehicle structure, occupant position, restraint use, and the forces involved.

Motor vehicle crashes are a recognized cause of traumatic brain injury and spinal trauma. Other crash injuries can include fractures, neck and back injuries, contusions, and related damage. 

How Does Speeding Affect the Value of Your Claim?

Speeding does not create a fixed dollar value for a personal injury claim. Instead, evidence of speed may affect both the liability analysis and the total speeding accident compensation in New Jersey that a victim can expect.

Potential personal injury damages in speeding crashes include pain and suffering, disability or impairment, loss of enjoyment of life, past and future medical expenses, and past and future lost wages when supported by the evidence and applicable law. A severe crash that causes substantial medical treatment, time away from work, continuing limitations, or future care may therefore involve different losses than a collision resulting in short-term injuries.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a speeding ticket to bring an injury claim?

Not necessarily. A traffic citation may become relevant evidence, but a civil claim can also rely on witness testimony, electronic vehicle information, video, physical crash evidence, and other admissible proof concerning the driver’s conduct.

Can a driver be responsible even if they were traveling below the posted speed limit?

Potentially. N.J.S.A. 39:4-98 requires drivers to use an appropriately reduced speed in specified conditions, including certain intersections, curves, narrow roads, weather conditions, and situations presenting hazards to pedestrians or other traffic.

What if both drivers share responsibility for the crash?

New Jersey uses comparative negligence principles. A factfinder may assign percentages of fault to the parties, and those findings can affect the amount ultimately recoverable.

Why does vehicle speed matter so much in an injury case?

Speed may help explain both how the collision occurred and why the resulting injuries were serious. Federal highway research links higher operating speeds with increased crash severity because greater speed increases the kinetic energy involved in an impact.

Cherry Hill Speeding Accident Lawyer at the Law Offices of David J. Karbasian, PC, Provides Trusted Advice

If you have been injured in a speeding accident on the roads of Cherry Hill, trust the Cherry Hill speeding accident lawyer at the Law Offices of David J. Karbasian, PC. Our trusted legal team will represent you with compassion and professionalism. Call us at 856-600-HURT or complete the online form for a free consultation. Our offices are located in Cherry Hill, NJ.