On July 27, motorists can expect to see more police vehicles tracking—and pulling over—highway speeders in six Great Lakes states: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. It’s part of a national response to the past year’s record-setting hike in traffic fatalities.
This regional “Speed Awareness Day” campaign invokes “zero tolerance” for speeding violations, said Judy Converse, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Public Safety. All officers participating in the campaign will issue citations, not warnings, Converse said, noting that officers who are not part of the campaign may follow different guidelines. Officials also say that even just seeing police has been proven to encourage drivers to comply with posted speed limits.
The campaign, which started in Illinois in 2016, has expanded this year to include the five additional states for the first time, Converse said. It’s also part of a nationwide education-and-prevention effort by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The federal program runs July 20–Aug. 14. During that span, $8 million in national advertising will trumpet safety slogans that target drivers ages 18–44, the group most likely to be involved in speed-related fatal crashes, the federal agency said in a news release. The campaign is intended to change public attitudes about speeding and to remind people about the consequences of driving too fast.
Speed is involved in about one-third of all motor vehicle fatalities nationwide, and preliminary figures for 2021 show that traffic deaths jumped more than 10 percent nationwide—"the highest number of fatalities since 2005 and the highest annual percentage increase in the recorded history of data in the Fatality Analysis Reporting System,” the news release said.
In 2021, the 6-state region saw 5,413 fatalities—an increase of 17.7 percent when compared with 2020. Speeding not only kills and hurts people but also comes with increased monetary costs, officials pointed out, such as speeding ticket fines, vehicle repair or replacement bills, and consuming more fuel—a particular sore point for Americans already feeling pain at the gas pump.
Friends Read Free