Speeding statistics Australia: Facts, fines, cameras and crash stats explained

What is speeding in Australia?

You are speeding if you are driving faster than the posted Australia speed limit. This article is filled with speeding facts but let’s start with one that might surprise you - most speeding deaths occur at no more than 10km/h over the speed limit.

Why is speeding dangerous?

Speeding has been proven to be the single biggest contributor to death and injury on NSW roads.

But why is it so dangerous? Driving too fast increases the risk of having a severe impact crash and your chances of a serious injury or death and it does this because the faster you go, the more time you need to react to avoid a crash. And the faster you go, the longer the distance needed to stop.

Legally, speeding only means driving faster than the posted speed limit but driving too fast for road/weather conditions can also contribute to dangerous or reckless driving in the eyes of the law.

For the latter, driving to the road conditions is important. Take a rainy day where the roads are wet and could be slick with run-off oil or fuel. Experience will tell you to slow down and take it easy because speeding affects your reaction times and stopping distances.

Fig 1: Data sourced from QLD Transport.

To put the above data in perspective, if there is a crash between a car and a pedestrian, there's a 90 per cent chance the pedestrian will survive when the car is travelling at 30km/h. That drops down to a 60 per cent survival rate when the car is travelling 40km/h and only a 10 per cent chance at 50km/h.

In a head-on crash between two vehicles, there's a 95 per cent chance that a driver or passenger will survive at 60km/h. That survival rate drops to 90 per cent at 70km/h, and only 20 per cent at 90km/h.

When are you allowed to drive above the speed limit?

The only drivers that are allowed to exceed the posted speed limits are emergency and police personnel. The vehicle must be marked as an emergency/police vehicle and have its sirens/lights on, so other motorists can clearly recognise the vehicle is in the middle of a life-threatening/saving operation.

For regular drivers, the posted speed limit is the maximum speed you are allowed to travel at but there is a small grey area when it comes to emergencies.

If you are in an emergency and you are conducting a life-saving rescue response – say you have a passenger who is severely medically compromised but an ambulance can’t get to you in time – police may be more lenient if you are caught speeding but it’s not guaranteed. Speeding is still a risk to other motorists, as well as yourself.

A general rule of thumb is if there is no speed-limit sign posted, you should stick to a maximum 50/h in built-up areas (areas with street lights and buildings next to the road less than 100m apart) and 100 km/h for all other roads.

Speeding statistics Australia 2022 show your gender and age play a part in your chances of speeding

The gender most likely to be at the helm of a speeding car is male and the most dangerous posted speed limits for everyone is 60km/h and 100km/h.

Out of the 362 road deaths on a 100km/h posted speed limit area, 268 were male and only 94 were female.

The 40–60 year old age group made up 137 of the total deaths for the 100km/h speed; the 17–25 year old age group made up 79 deaths and this is most likely due to people speeding in this age group are most likely to be on a learner or provisional licence.

How are we combating speeding drivers and what kind of penalties can apply?

Each year, speeding contributes to about 41 per cent of road fatalities and 24 per cent of serious injuries.

Fig 2: speeding deaths statistics Australia

Some speeding fine statistics

You can be caught speeding by a fixed speed camera, a mobile speed camera and police patrols.

A speed camera fine and penalties vary between states but all share similar severity. In NSW, penalties include fines, demerit points (including double demerit points), loss of licence and even the confiscation of your vehicle or number plates.

For Learner and Provisional 1 licences, any speeding offence will incur a licence suspension for a minimum of three months plus a minimum $429 fine.

For Provisional 2 licence holders, they will receive a licence suspension of three months and a extra six-month extension any time they are caught speeding 30km/h or more over the posted limit.

For speeding statistics NSW, in the FY23/24 there were a total of 873,472 speeding infringements issued which had an offence value of $233,604,110! We're assured those funds go back into road safety programs but that is a lot of fines!

What might stop a driver from speeding?

Other than hefty fines, possible convictions and jail time, there have been, and still are, many campaigns targeting the speeding epidemic in Australia.

The most recognisable campaign targeting young drivers from ‘my day’ was the 2007 ‘No one thinks big of you’ or the ‘Pinkie’ campaign – which tapped into the younger generation psyche of being seen as uncool for speeding. Pinkie Campaign Video (For nostalgia purposes only).

Recent campaigns from NSW include Towards Zero and Every K Counts, which was launched in 2021.