The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Madison County Sheriffs to participate in Speed Awareness Week campaign
Wampsville, N.Y. — The Madison County Sheriff’s Office is participating in a targeted program to reduce speed-related crashes and save lives as part of Speed Awareness Week, a statewide campaign organized by the NYS Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee. The intensified engagement and enforcement effort aimed at speeding drivers underscores the severity of the problem, both locally and across the nation.
“Fatal accidents due to speed happen every year on our roadways. Speeding 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,” said Madison County Sheriff Todd Hood.
County officials report that in 2019, the most recent year for which final data is available, speeding was a contributing factor in 26 percent of all traffic fatalities in the U.S. More than 9,400 people were killed in such crashes — an average of more than 25 people per day, according to figures from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
In New York, preliminary 2020 data from the Institute for Traffic Safety Management and Research’s (ITSMR) Traffic Safety Statistical Repository (TSSR) show that more than one-third (36%) of the state’s 1,027 traffic fatalities in 2020 were caused by speeding; 365 people lost their lives, and 2,069 were seriously injured in these preventable collisions. Unsafe speed was a contributing factor in 314 fatal crashes in 2020, compared to 230 fatal crashes in 2019. The number of fatal crashes caused by unsafe speed increases in New York during the summer months with the highest totals occurring June — October. This information was cited in a Madison County news release.
NHTSA says 3 in 10 Americans 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. In New York in 2020, preliminary ITSMR/ TSSR data reveals that 42 percent of the motor vehicle occupants killed in speed-related crashes were not wearing a seat belt at the time of the collision. 16 percent of the speeding drivers involved in fatal collisions in New York in 2019 had consumed alcohol — a top contributing factor in speed-related crashes.
“During Speed Awareness Week, from July 31 — August 8, our deputies will engage the public to inform and educate about the dangers of speeding, and will intensify enforcement of posted speed limits in Madison County,” Hood said. “During this campaign, deputies will be out targeting and ticketing speeding drivers. Our goal is to save lives, and we’re putting all drivers on alert — the posted speed limit is the law.”
County officials say the data shows that a major proportion of fatal, speeding-related single-vehicle crashes occur on rural roadways. About 15 percent of the nation’s speeding-related fatalities occur on interstate highways each year, officials say. As the speed limit increases, so do the chances of being killed in a speed-related crash. NHTSA considers a crash speedingrelated if the driver was charged with exceeding the posted speed limit or if the driver was driving too fast for conditions at the time.
According to NHTSA, the economic cost to society from speedrelated crashes is $52 billion annually.