MCSO launches enforcement blitz during statewide Speed Awareness Week Campaign, Aug. 1 through 7
Madison County Sheriff Todd Hood launched a speed enforcement blitz July 23, 2019, as part of Speed Awareness Week, a statewide enforcement campaign organized by the state Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee. The intensified enforcement effort against speeding drivers underscores the severity of the problem, locally and across the nation.
“Speeding translates to death on our roadways,” Hood said. “It greatly reduces a driver’s ability to steer safely around another vehicle, a hazardous object or an unexpected curve. Speeding drivers put themselves, their passengers and other drivers at tremendous risk.”
In 2017, speeding was a contributing factor in 26 percent of all traffic fatalities in the U.S. More than 9,700 people were killed in such crashes, according to the latest data available from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. According to the NHTSA, three in 10 people speed. These drivers are also more likely to engage in other risky behaviors, such as not wearing a seat belt, drinking and driving or using a cell phone while driving; 49 percent of speeding drivers involved in fatal crashes in 2017 were not wearing a seat belt.
In New York, NHTSA data shows that 31 percent of the state’s 999 traffic fatalities in 2017 were caused by speeding. Unfortunately, 308 people lost their lives in these preventable collisions. The number of fatal crashes caused by unsafe speed increases in New York during the summer months, with the highest totals coming in July, August and September.
During Speed Awareness Week blitz from Aug. 1 through 7, enforcement of posted speed limits in Madison County will intensify.
Nearly half (152) of all speed-related traffic fatalities in New York in 2017 occurred on local roads, where the posted speed limits were 55 miles per hour or under. According to NHTSA, a crash on a road with a speed limit of 65 mph or greater is more than twice as likely to result in a fatality than a crash on a road with a speed limit of 45 or 50 mph and nearly five times as likely as a crash on a road with a speed limit of 40 mph or below.
The Madison County Sheriff’s Office’s goal is to save lives, so they are putting all drivers on alert: the posted speed limit is the law. No more warnings, and no more excuses; obey the sign or pay the fine.