As announced, The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s 2020 Operation Safe Driver Week will go on as scheduled July 12-18.

During the OSD week law enforcement across North American will be actively monitoring unsafe driver behavior, with a focus on speeding! Drivers displaying unsafe driving behavior will be pulled over by law enforcement and may be issued a warning or citation.

This year’s Safe Driver Week will focus on speeding, which CVSA said has been increasing in recent months with highway traffic significantly declined due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Is the highway’s lack of vehicles reason for unsafe driving? Absolutely not! According to National Traffic Highway Safety Administration in 2018. 9,378 people died in speed-related crushes and it makes 25% of all road related accidents, and professionals keep warning us that the percent could increase in 2020 by 50%, which is simply unacceptable.

Statistics according to CVSA shows the following:
• In New York City, transportation officials reported an increase of more than 60% in the number of speed camera tickets issued in March compared to a year ago. At the same time, traffic was down more than 90% compared to January.

• In Washington, D.C., traffic decreased 80% in March compared to January, while officials recorded a 20% increase in March speeding tickets. Of those tickets, violations for driving 21-25 mph over the speed limit rose by nearly 40%.

• Over just one weekend in Toronto, police charged 18 drivers with stunt driving, with speeds of 80-106 mph on the Don Valley Parkway, a major freeway that’s limited to 55 mph.

• California reported an increase in speeding violations and although the California Highway Patrol’s call volume has decreased, the crashes they have recently responded to have been worse.

• Tucson, Ariz., police reported a 40% increase in one-vehicle wrecks, which usually happens when a driver’s going so fast they lose control.

• In Minnesota, motor vehicle crashes and fatalities more than doubled compared to the same time period in previous years. Half those deaths were related to speeding or careless or negligent driving.

• In Colorado, Indiana, Nebraska and Utah, police have clocked highway speeds of more than 100 mph.

• Chicago and Los Angeles went from travel speed increases of 35-38% above average to 74-75% above average in just one week.

In 2015. America could spot multiple sings, so called, emotionally intelligent signs, such as “Someone loves you, drive with care”, we would like to kindly remind all drivers out there that “Late won’t kill you, but speeding will”

Source: cvsa.org