If a speeding driver hurt you, a Detroit speeding car accident lawyer can prove how fast that vehicle was actually traveling and use it to build the value of your claim. Christensen Law is a Michigan trial firm with a Detroit office in the Ford Building on Griswold Street, and speed is one of the first things we set about establishing. It shapes fault, it shapes injury severity, and it shapes what an insurance company is willing to pay.
Speed evidence disappears quickly. Call us at (248) 900-9000 while the vehicles, the data, and the witnesses are still available.
CHRISTENSEN LAW HAS A 24 HOUR RAPID RESPONSE SERVICE
How Speed Changes a Detroit Car Accident Claim
Speed does two things to a claim at once, and both of them matter. It makes the other driver’s negligence easier to establish, and it makes your injuries more severe, which is what determines whether you can pursue damages beyond no-fault benefits.
A crash at 55 miles per hour on the Fisher Freeway is a different event from the same impact at 30 miles per hour on Woodward Avenue. Higher closing speeds produce the injury patterns that clear Michigan’s threshold for a lawsuit against the at-fault driver, including traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord damage, and complex fractures.
That is also why insurers work hard to keep speed out of the conversation. An adjuster who concedes the crash was a low-speed event has already narrowed what the claim is worth.
What Does Michigan Law Say About Speeding?
Michigan law does more than post limits, and that is useful in a civil case. Under MCL 257.627, a driver must operate at a careful and prudent speed that is reasonable and proper given the traffic, the road surface, the width of the road, and any other condition existing at the time.
The same section says a driver may not travel faster than will permit a stop within the assured, clear distance ahead. Michigan calls a breach of this the basic speed law, or VBSL, and a violation is a civil infraction.
Two practical consequences follow for a Detroit speeding accident injury attorney. First, a driver can be traveling under the posted limit and still be speeding under the statute, which matters on a snow-covered Lodge Freeway in February. Second, the posted limits in MCL 257.627 and MCL 257.628 give a jury a clear reference point when a driver was well past them.
The Michigan State Police publishes guidance on how officers apply both provisions in the field. That guidance is a useful context for a civil case, even though a traffic infraction and civil negligence are decided under different standards.
How Do We Prove the Other Driver Was Speeding?
Speed is proven with physical evidence and vehicle data, not with the other driver’s estimate. Most cars and light trucks on the road today record the seconds before a crash, and that data is the single most persuasive proof available in a speeding-related crash lawyer’s file in Detroit.
Vehicle data and physical evidence
An event data recorder, sometimes called a black box, can capture pre-impact speed, throttle position, braking, and seat belt status. Crush depth, debris scatter, and post-impact resting positions let a reconstruction engineer calculate closing speeds independently.
Scene and roadway evidence
Skid marks and yaw marks fade within days, and Detroit road crews and weather remove them faster than most people expect. Traffic cameras, business surveillance, transit vehicle cameras, and dashcams from other drivers are often overwritten on a rolling schedule measured in days.
Records and testimony
The traffic crash report, any citation issued, 911 audio, and witness statements all bear on speed. In commercial vehicle cases, there may also be telematics, GPS records, and dispatch logs.
Because most of this evidence has a short shelf life, we send preservation letters early and, where a vehicle is about to be repaired or scrapped, we move to inspect it first.
Recovering Beyond No-Fault After a Detroit Speeding Crash
Your own insurer pays your medical bills and part of your wage loss through Personal Injury Protection, no matter who caused the crash. Pain and suffering, wage loss past three years, and medical costs above your PIP level come from the at-fault driver instead.
MCL 500.3135 controls when that second claim is available. The injured person must have suffered death, permanent serious disfigurement, or a serious impairment of body function, defined as an objectively manifested impairment of an important body function that affects the person’s general ability to lead a normal life.
Serious impairment is a legal question, not simply a medical one, and the proof has to be objective. Imaging, surgical records, and documented functional limits do the work here, while a report of pain alone rarely carries a claim.
Our Detroit car accident team builds both tracks in parallel so the first-party benefits keep flowing while the liability case develops.
Why Injured Detroit Drivers Turn to Christensen Law
We prepare cases for trial, and speeding cases in particular reward that approach because the proof is technical. An insurer weighing a reconstruction report knows the difference between a firm that will present it to a jury and one that will not.
- We are a Michigan firm working under Michigan law, including the no-fault rules that decide what a crash claim is worth here
- Our Detroit office in the Ford Building keeps us close to the Wayne County Circuit Court and the roads on which these cases happen
- Five offices across the state, in Southfield, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor, and Troy, with representation available statewide
- We work with reconstruction engineers and treating physicians rather than relying on paper alone
- We take a deliberately limited number of serious injury cases so each one gets real attention
Our focus is on serious and catastrophic motor vehicle injury, which is where the speed question usually decides the outcome. If that describes your situation, call (248) 900-9000 and we will look at it with you.
What Is a Speeding Crash Claim Worth in Detroit?
Value comes from the losses you can document, not from a formula, and speeding cases tend to sit at the higher end because the injuries are more serious. Two separate buckets of compensation are in play, and they come from different places.
Your no-fault benefits handle the immediate costs. Under MCL 500.3107, those include reasonable charges for reasonably necessary medical care, up to 85% of lost wages for as long as three years, replacement services for household tasks, and mileage to and from treatment.
The third-party claim against the speeding driver covers everything else:
- Pain, suffering, and emotional distress tied to the injury
- Wage loss continuing past the three-year no-fault window
- Lost earning capacity where you cannot return to the same work
- Medical costs above your selected PIP coverage level
- Loss of the activities and relationships the injury took from you
- Damages for surviving family in a fatal crash
Future losses must be supported by medical and vocational opinions, which take time to assemble properly. That is the main reason a serious case should not be settled while treatment is still ongoing.
What If the Insurance Company Blames You for the Crash?
Shared fault reduces a recovery in Michigan, but it does not automatically end one. Under MCL 600.2959, damages are reduced in proportion to your share of responsibility, and a person found more than 50% at fault cannot recover non-economic damages.
This is why insurers press the point so hard. Suggesting you were 30% responsible for pulling out in front of a speeding vehicle is worth 30% of the claim to them, and it costs nothing to argue.
Speed evidence is often the answer to a comparative fault argument. A driver who had the right of way but misjudged an approaching vehicle looks very different once the data shows that the vehicle was traveling 25 miles per hour over the limit.
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Deadlines in a Detroit Excessive Speed Car Accident Claim
Two separate clocks run from the date of your crash, and missing either one causes real damage. The gap between them catches people out regularly.
- Three years to file a lawsuit against the at-fault driver, under MCL 600.5805
- One year to give written notice of injury to your no-fault insurer, under MCL 500.3145
- One year back from the date suit is filed as the limit on recoverable no-fault benefits
- Shorter notice periods where a government vehicle or a road authority is involved, under the rules the Michigan courts apply to claims against public agencies
Evidence deadlines are tighter still, and they are not written into any statute. Our overview of the filing deadlines that apply to Michigan crash claims goes through how these periods interact.
Where Speeding Crashes Happen in Detroit
Speed-related crashes cluster where the road design invites acceleration, and the cross traffic does not expect it. Knowing the corridor helps because the available evidence differs from one to the next.
Freeway segments produce the highest closing speeds and the most severe injuries, and they are also the most likely to have Michigan Department of Transportation camera coverage. Crashes on I-75, I-94, I-96, and M-10 tend to involve reconstruction work from the outset.
Wide surface arterials are a different problem. Roads like Woodward Avenue, Gratiot Avenue, Grand River Avenue, and Eight Mile carry heavy traffic through commercial frontage, so a speeding vehicle meets vehicles turning across its path and people crossing on foot.
Residential streets and school zones bring the basic speed law squarely into play, since a driver can be within the posted limit and still traveling at a speed no careful person would choose. Wherever your crash happened, the useful footage is usually held by a nearby business rather than by any public agency.
FAQs Answered by Our Detroit Speeding Car Accident Lawyer
These are the questions Detroit clients ask us most often after a crash involving a speeding driver.
No. A citation helps, but a civil claim is decided on the evidence rather than on whether an officer wrote a ticket at the scene. Vehicle data, reconstruction analysis, and witness accounts can establish speed even where no citation was issued.
You may still have a path forward. Uninsured motorist coverage on your own policy can apply in hit-and-run situations, and your PIP benefits are not dependent on identifying the other driver. A prompt police report matters a great deal in these cases.
Often yes, though your recovery would be reduced by your share of fault. The bar sits at more than 50% for non-economic damages, so being partly responsible is not the same as having no case.
Racing on a public road can support a claim for reckless conduct rather than ordinary carelessness, and it may bring additional parties into the case. The evidence tends to be richer as well, since these incidents often involve multiple vehicles and social media activity.
Claims against governmental agencies follow a different set of rules, including much shorter notice deadlines and a narrower set of circumstances in which the agency can be sued. If a municipal vehicle was involved, the timing of your first call matters more than usual.
It depends on the severity of the injuries and whether liability is contested. Cases where treatment is ongoing generally should not be settled early, because the full extent of a serious injury is often not clear for many months.
Speak With a Detroit Speeding Car Accident Lawyer
The data that proves how fast the other driver was going will not wait for you to feel ready. We would rather hear from you early and tell you that you do not need us than have you call after a vehicle has been scrapped.
Reach Christensen Law at (248) 900-9000 or through our contact page. We handle serious injury cases throughout Michigan, from Detroit and Wayne County to communities across the state.
