Georgia Ranks Among Top States for Traffic Enforcement as Speeding Deaths Remain a National Threat

Speeding continues to shape road safety outcomes across the United States, and the consequences remain deadly. In 2024, 11,258 people were killed in speeding-related crashes nationwide—only slightly below the 11,775 recorded in 2023—underscoring that excessive speed remains one of the country’s most persistent traffic safety hazards.

A new study conducted by Bader Law examines how speeding enforcement and penalties vary by state and where Georgia fits in the national picture. Using a combination of court caseload data, reported enforcement metrics, and speeding fatality trends, the study highlights large differences in how aggressively states ticket drivers, how much they charge when motorists are cited, and how those policies may intersect with crash outcomes and insurance costs.

Speeding’s Role in Traffic Deaths—and Who Is Most Affected

Nationally, speeding is a major driver of fatalities. The National Safety Council attributes 28% of traffic deaths to speeding, and Bader Law’s analysis points to especially high risk among younger drivers and motorcyclists.

In 2023, speeding was cited in 37% of fatal crashes involving male drivers ages 15 to 20, compared with 19% for females in the same age range, making teens and young adults one of the most overrepresented groups for speed-related fatal outcomes. Among motorcycle riders, the disparity is even sharper: riders ages 21 to 24 who were involved in fatal crashes were speeding in 51% of cases. The study notes that while individual behavior is a clear factor, state-level policy decisions—such as enforcement intensity and penalty structures—also appear to shape the environment drivers operate within.

Enforcement Is Uneven Nationwide

The study estimates that U.S. law enforcement issues more than 40 million speeding tickets per year. In 2024, there were 32.43 million incoming traffic cases, a 4% rise from 2023, even as traffic-case volume has dropped 37% from 2012 to 2024. Meanwhile, Bureau of Justice Statistics reporting cited in the study indicates that in 2022, police detained 12,446,800 drivers during traffic stops—about 5.2% of the driving population.

Despite that scale, enforcement looks very different depending on where drivers live. Some states appear to concentrate enforcement through speed traps, while others show high proportions of drivers receiving speeding tickets even when speed-trap density is low. For example, North Dakota ranks among states with the lowest speed traps per lane mile, yet it leads the nation for the share of drivers who report receiving a speeding ticket (8.7%), according to the study’s compiled figures.

Georgia Stands Out in Traffic Court Volume

One of the report’s central findings is Georgia’s unusually high traffic court workload. Between 2020 and 2024, Georgia state courts processed 13,574,202 traffic cases, placing the state sixth nationally in the study’s enforcement caseload ranking.

Only Texas (44.38 million), New Jersey (30.87 million), California (24.62 million), Florida (16.85 million), and Pennsylvania (14.41 million) reported higher totals during the same five-year period. Georgia’s placement is notable because it outranks larger or similarly sized states including Michigan, Ohio, New York, Illinois—and, as the study emphasizes, every other Southeastern state included in the dataset.

The study also flags Georgia’s 11.54% increase in enforcement caseloads over the period, suggesting a clear upward trend. Whether that reflects increased speeding, broader traffic enforcement, administrative changes, or a mix of factors, the result is the same: drivers in Georgia are more likely to encounter enforcement that escalates into court processing than in many other parts of the country.

Penalties Vary Widely—and Georgia’s Pattern Is Mixed

Bader Law’s analysis also compares speeding fines at different thresholds. Some states impose steep penalties at relatively modest overages, while others reserve major fines for extreme speeding. Georgia appears relatively lenient at the lowest margin but becomes significantly more punitive once drivers exceed the limit by larger amounts.

For exceeding the limit by 10 mph, Georgia is among the lower-cost states in the study’s list, with an $84 fine. But for a 15 mph overage, Georgia appears in the “most expensive” group at $223. At 40 mph over the limit, Georgia’s listed fine reaches $420—placing it among states with the costliest penalties for extreme speeding, though far below Illinois, which tops that list at $2,500.

The study points to Georgia’s “Super Speeder” law as a notable deterrent: drivers convicted of traveling 75 mph or more on a two-lane road, or 85 mph or more on other roads, face an additional $200 fee. Georgia does not appear in the study’s top-ten list for speeding fatalities over the 2014–2023 period, which the report suggests may indicate that high-end deterrents can influence the most dangerous behavior, even when enforcement volume is high.

Insurance Costs Add Another Layer of Consequences

Beyond fines, the study emphasizes the financial aftershocks drivers face once a speeding ticket hits their record. It cites an average monthly full-coverage premium of $203 for drivers with clean histories and estimates that a speeding ticket increases monthly costs by about 22% on average. Even so, the study cites survey-based evidence that more than 30% of Americans continue speeding after being ticketed, raising questions about whether penalties alone change behavior without sustained enforcement, education, or engineering solutions.

What the Data Suggests

Bader Law’s findings point to a national landscape where speeding enforcement is widespread but inconsistent—shaped by local court capacity, policing practices, fine schedules, and state-specific deterrents. Georgia’s placement near the top of the enforcement caseload rankings, paired with rising court volumes and a mixed penalty structure, suggests drivers in the state face a comparatively high likelihood of traffic enforcement escalating into formal case processing.

At the same time, the broader national figures—over 11,000 speeding deaths in 2024 and tens of millions of traffic cases—show that speeding remains a nationwide public safety problem, regardless of where enforcement is most concentrated.

This reporting-style summary is based on the speed enforcement and safety study conducted by Bader Law and the sources referenced in its methodology section (including national court statistics and traffic safety datasets).