Even a small car will create a significant impact if it is traveling at a high rate of speed. When someone is operating a motor vehicle on the roadways in Louisiana, the highway engineers have established what they consider to be a safe rate of speed to travel. This is why there are speed limits. If someone is traveling in excess of the speed limit, they have less time to react to adverse situations in front of them. They lose the ability to brake and avoid collisions, and as a consequence, the forces involved in the collision create much more serious injuries such as broken bones, skull fractures, and spinal injuries.