Speeding (and Driving Safety) by the Numbers

• • Men receive more speeding tickets than women, but more women fight their tickets.
• • Thanks to an old law still on the books, members of the Georgia state assembly cannot be ticketed for speeding while the assembly is in session.
• • Built in 1894, Henry Ford's first motor vehicle only went forward.
• • Traffic lights were used even before automobiles were invented. In 1868, a lantern with red and green signals was used at a London intersection to help control the flow of horse buggies and pedestrians.
• • Film actor and director Harry Myers got the world's first speeding ticket in 1904 in Dayton, OH. Police busted Myers for going 12 miles per hour.
• • Doctors receive more speeding tickets than any other profession.
• • According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 75% of surveyed drivers admitted to driving over the speed limit within the past month. The other 25% were lying.
• • In 1966, Brooklyn, OH was the first city in America to mandate seat belts while driving.
• • New Jersey drivers convicted of driving while intoxicated are not allowed to apply for personalized license plates.
• • Over half of all reported crashes occur within five miles of the driver's home. Only 1% of crashes take place more than 50 miles from home.
• • Over 41,000,000 tickets for speeding were written nationwide in 2003.
• • The average American speeding fine is about $120.
• • Virginia has the most expensive speeding tickets in the U.S. A first-time speeder can get slapped with a fee as much as $1,350. Only Virginia residents, however, are subject to the costlier penalties.
• • Only about one out of every fifteen drivers fights his or her speeding ticket in court.
• • One of the fastest speeding tickets in the world was written by an officer in Wabasha, MN. He clocked a motorcyclist going 205 mph in a 65 mph zone.
• • The top ten states that award the most speeding tickets are (in order): Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, California, Texas, Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina, Massachusetts and Connecticut.
• • The world's most expensive speeding ticket was given to a 27-year-old sausage heir, who was clocked in Helsinki, Finland in 2003 for driving 80 kilometers per hour (about 50 mph) in a 40 kmh zone. The ticket was a whopping 170,000 Euros (almost $250,000), because Finland's speeding tickets are relative to the offender's income.
• • According to a survey by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 22% of drivers under 30 reported that they believe there is too much police enforcement of speeding. Just 8% of drivers over 30 felt the same way.
• • It is estimated that speeding is a factor in about a third of all traffic fatalities.