Driving over speed limit a mortal sin?

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I have a terrible habit of driving OVER the speed limit because I kinda like going fast even if I’m not in a hurry (but not fast enough to cause an accident). I know I’m driving over the speed limit because it’s a habit I formed and I can’t seem to stop!

Yes, I KNOW I shouldn’t go over the speed limit. From my understanding, that is a mortal sin? :eek: :eek: I thought it was a venial sin.

If that’s the case, I’m in deep yogurt! :eek: :eek:
 
It is a sin to disobey rules established by lawful authorities. The Church and the bible supports this position. It is my personal belief that breaking the speed limit would be a mortal sin when taken to an extreme.

Did you know someone caught speeding over 100 mph could get arrested for attempted suicide? :eek:

I include speeding on my list of sins I take to confession. Cruise control helps me decrease this particular vice.
 
I certainly hope NOT otherwise I would be in confession 24 hours a day.

I think reckless driving well in excess of the limits is sinful because it endangers yourself and others. But I think if you are going with the flow of the traffic and driving responsibly then I think you are okay.
 
If you are scrupulous you might want to focus on why the law is there rather than the law itself.

For example, it might be painted “no parking” in front of a building. I think that it says that in case of a fire the car aren’t blocking the firetrucks (someone correct me if I’m wrong) . However, lets say it’s pouring rain and you want to mail an envelope. Instead of parking in the parking lot you park right in front of the mail box (on where it says no parking), get in and out and mail the letter in about 15 seconds. Now, technically you broke the law. However, did you something against why the law was there? Now, if you’re scrupulous you might say something like not really but what if I accidently locked my car and dropped the keys down the mailbox and there was a fire? Don’t think like that. Just act against your groundless fears and accept the punishment if you get caught. For example, accept a ticket if there’s actually a policeman who would ticket you for doing such a thing or a broken window to move your car if you accidently locked the car, dropped your keys in the mailbox and there was a fire.

As for driving it’s a bit more subjective. You yourself should know whether you’re driving safely (not sinful), carelessly (venially sinful), or recklessly (gravely sinful). Also, you must take into consideration the situation. Driving 10 miles over the speed limit on the highway you drive home on every day during rush hour is different than driving 10 miles over the speed limit in a residential neighbourhood that you are unfamiliar with at the time school’s getting out. Don’t fear that if you go 60 in a 55mph zone with perfect weather you’re sinning gravely. Just accept the punishment if you are caught.

When driving take into consideration the posted speed limit, weather conditions, traffic, familiarity with the road, your driving ability and your car then make an appropriate decision.
 
Please obey traffic laws - they are there for a reason. Just last night my husband witnessed an accident. We live in Los Angeles and people drive like idiots: speeding, ignoring stop signs, do not turn signs, yield signs. I’ve witnessed three accidents caused by people going too fast who went right through a red light and right into the side of another car (one guy broadsided a new Rolls Royce). Serious injury and death are real possibilities. Everyone thinks they are in control of their car until they have an accident - and then the damage is done. Please, please be careful. The life you save may be your own.
 
If i drive 5 miles over the limit in an area with no pedestrians (like a highway) moving with trafic I am sinning? Please. If thats a sin, than certainly the idiots going 15 under, holding up trafic are sinning.
 
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Andrew_11:
If i drive 5 miles over the limit in an area with no pedestrians (like a highway) moving with trafic I am sinning? Please. If thats a sin, than certainly the idiots going 15 under, holding up trafic are sinning.
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They probably are. Having come up from behind on someone doing 15 or so under the speed of the traffic flow and having to slam on brakes or change lanes, that type of behaviour is very dangerous.
 
I would say that driving recklessly would be seriously wrong as it could endanger both yourself and others. But I am not sure how far over the speed limit you would have to go in order to reach that point. On the local college campus here, someone was just run over by an suv and killed as he was trying to cross the street. A wonderful person and a good student but his life was cut short by a driver exceeding the posted speed limit. A lot of times, I am going the posted speed limit but I notice that the driver behind me is tailgating and honking or flashing her lights on and off as a demand that I speed up or else.
 
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Andrew_11:
If i drive 5 miles over the limit in an area with no pedestrians (like a highway) moving with trafic I am sinning? Please. If thats a sin, than certainly the idiots going 15 under, holding up trafic are sinning.
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Driving well under, like the above issue, is subjective. If you are doing this just to get on people’s nerves: yes, a sin. And yes, it is dangerous, and yes, it is probably mortal. If you’re doing it because that’s as fast as your car can go rigt now (mechanical problems), that’s a little different. Or perhaps the driver is elderly and cannot see well. This also changes things a bit. It may be dangerous for them to drive any faster.
 
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koda:
Please obey traffic laws - they are there for a reason. Just last night my husband witnessed an accident. We live in Los Angeles and people drive like idiots: speeding, ignoring stop signs, do not turn signs, yield signs. I’ve witnessed three accidents caused by people going too fast who went right through a red light and right into the side of another car (one guy broadsided a new Rolls Royce). Serious injury and death are real possibilities. Everyone thinks they are in control of their car until they have an accident - and then the damage is done. Please, please be careful. The life you save may be your own.
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Folks who speed through stop signs or red lights are just plain lunatics, suicidal and homocidal come to mind. Drunk drivers and anyone who gets behind a wheel while seriously impaired by liquor or drugs fits this category also.
 
Here’s some food for thought.

At an off-ramp I take everyday home from work, the posted speed limit is 30 mph, which I think is absurdly low because the offramp right away merges into the service road of another highway. Usually I drive through it at around 35 mph, which results in other people whizzing by me, passing on the right by driving into the shoulder, which results in some close calls as they cut in front of me to the left.

Now I have to ask myself, which is worse - driving over the speed limit on this ramp, or putting myself in danger (at the hands of other drivers) by driving at (or slightly over) the limit? If there were two lanes at this dangerous spot there would be no problem. My inclination is to speed since this would be less dangerous for me and for the other drivers.

I swear the drivers in NY are insane. Last night I had one guy pull up on my right at a red light, in the right-hand turn lane. He stops at the light, blasts his horn a few times, pokes his finger straight ahead a few times as if jabbing someone in the eye, and zips through the red light. It was so bizarre and so dangerous it took me a minute to realize what had actually happened.
 
When I was in HS many, many years ago, our HS counselor told us to speed up to 60 mph or even faster when trying to get onto a highway from a ramp. Coming from a Jesuit priest we all thought this was insanely funny.

Later on I realized that he is exactly right. You have to be moving close to the speed of the highway traffic or even faster to safely merge in.

IF you slow down or stop, you become a huge hazard and will have a very tough time getting into the traffic.
 
Driving over the speed limit is a sin because it is breaking man’s law (and this particular man’s law does not oppose God’s law, so you have to follow it).
Of course you might accidentally speed sometimes because you’re not looking at your speedometer. Well, if you didn’t do anything on purpose then it’s not really a sin. However, you should always intend to not speed and you should take care (look at your speedometer every now and then) to try to avoid speeding. If you take reasonable amount of care to obey this law, then you should be right.

However, speeding is not normally a mortal sin as it isn’t a grave matter (unless you are driving so fast that you are a serious danger to others - remember, a car is a lethal weapon), and aslo, it’s normally done without full knowledge / intention (accidental speeding, as above).

If you deilberately go at 50mph over the speed limit because you don’t care what the rules are and you don’t care who you ‘accidentally’ kill (including yourself), then in that case it probably is a mortal sin.
 
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wcknight:
When I was in HS many, many years ago, our HS counselor told us to speed up to 60 mph or even faster when trying to get onto a highway from a ramp. Coming from a Jesuit priest we all thought this was insanely funny.

Later on I realized that he is exactly right. You have to be moving close to the speed of the highway traffic or even faster to safely merge in.

IF you slow down or stop, you become a huge hazard and will have a very tough time getting into the traffic.
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It’s true. My dad used to be a truck driver for several years, and when he was teaching me to drive, he would always say, “Speed up, or else they’ll run you over” whenever I was getting ready to merge into interstate or highway traffic.

I thought he was insane, because your natural instinct is to slow down before putting yourself in a dangerous situation (and technically, merging into high speed traffic is one). It took me a few years of experience to realize he was right, though.
 
The problem is that the Law Enforcement’s approach towards the law is subjective. When I was taking driver’s ed. I was told to drive about 5 mph over the speed limit and no more - this was confirmed by police officers as well. In fact, Highway Patrol will tell you, they never pull somone over on the interstate for doing 5 mph over. Bear in mind that the law allows for one to drive “with the flow of traffic,” even if that speed is over the speed limit in order to not create a jam or road hazard.

As speed limits are not objective, natural laws one must take into account the subjectivity inherent within the law as written by the lawmakers and applied by law enforcement to determine the severity of the sin.

In other words, consciously going 50 in a school zone would most likely be a mortal sin.

Driving 80 mph on a 70 mph interstate…probably not.
 
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mike182d:
The problem is that the Law Enforcement’s approach towards the law is subjective. When I was taking driver’s ed. I was told to drive about 5 mph over the speed limit and no more - this was confirmed by police officers as well. In fact, Highway Patrol will tell you, they never pull somone over on the interstate for doing 5 mph over. Bear in mind that the law allows for one to drive “with the flow of traffic,” even if that speed is over the speed limit in order to not create a jam or road hazard.

As speed limits are not objective, natural laws one must take into account the subjectivity inherent within the law as written by the lawmakers and applied by law enforcement to determine the severity of the sin.

In other words, consciously going 50 in a school zone would most likely be a mortal sin.

Driving 80 mph on a 70 mph interstate…probably not.
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Very Catholic and intelligent post. 👍
 
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