Why are California speed limits so strictly enforced? Sure, it may seem like the state is just trying to siphon money out of your wallet, but the reason that the speed limits are there and that the fines are so high is to keep California drivers safe. Speeding is dangerous! According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, fatal crashes caused by speeding kill 1,000 Americans every month!

According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, speeding increases the likelihood and severity of a fatal crash in 3 different ways:

• It increases the amount of space your vehicle travels between the time you see an emergency and the time you react to that emergency by trying to stop. No matter how cat-like your reflexes are, it still takes a few seconds for the nerve signals to travel from your eyes to your brain to your foot. The faster you are going, the closer your car will be to the obstacle before you can even start slowing down.

• Once you've hit the brakes, the time it takes your car to stop also increases based on how fast you were going.

• If you do crash into something, the faster you are going, the more force the crash will generate. In fact, speeding increases the amount of force involved in a crash exponentially!

In 2002, 1468 people were killed in speeding-related car crashes in California, according to statistics compiled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and published in a report titled “Analysis of Speeding-Related Fatal Motor Vehicle Traffic Crashes." Consider that next time you are in a hurry. Is it really worth the extra risk?