The North Carolina Governor’s Office of Highway Safety in partnership with the NCDOT and local law enforcement agencies just launched North Carolina’s annual “Speed A Little, Lose A Lot” campaign. It started yesterday and will run through this coming Easter Sunday (April 1).
The campaign will employ thousands of additional ‘speed traps’ across our state this week to crack down on speeding and remind drivers of what’s at stake.
The NCDOT’s website details the importance of the campaign and of drawing people’s attention to speeding;
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 below 40 mph.
Speeding can have dangerous consequences, including:
- Reducing a driver’s ability to negotiate curves or maneuver around obstacles in the roadway
- Extending the distance traveled before a vehicle can stop
- Increasing the distance a vehicle travels while the driver reacts to a hazard
- Increasing the risk of crashes and injuries because other vehicles and pedestrians might not be able to judge distance correctly
In 2016, 88 percent of all speeding-related traffic fatalities in North Carolina occurred on non-interstate roadways – where the posted speed limits were 55 mph or less. Only 12 percent of the state’s speeding-related fatalities occurred on interstate highways that year.
The “Speed a Little. Lose a Lot.” annual campaign reminds drivers that there is no reason to speed because the consequences could be more than just getting a ticket – your life or someone else’s.
Even with increased efforts by the police to crack down on speeding, some drivers are still getting around the law by using advanced radar detectors and license plate hiders for auto camera speed traps (which have been outlawed in North Carolina).
What do you think of North Carolina’s annual speed campaign?