Across the state this week, through Oct. 9, officers are enforcing “Operation Crash Reduction” to prevent and bring awareness to speed-related crashes. The program is also underway in Washington D.C., Kentucky, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia.
Part of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) regional campaign, the goal is to target unsafe driving behaviors. Officers will be elevating efforts to crack down on speeding by conducting more radar operations and installing more speed display signs in communities across North Carolina.
“We have an epidemic of high-speed crashes occurring on roads in North Carolina,” Mark Ezzell, director of the North Carolina Governor’s Highway Safety Program, said in a press release. “This is part of GHSP’s broader efforts to combat a dangerous increase in speeding through increased enforcement, public awareness and policy.”
According to NHTSA, the region experiences more fatal crashes in October than any other month. In total, 190 people died in October last year in North Carolina; 42 were speeding-related.
Across the state, nearly 300 people have been killed in speed-related crashes as of Oct. 3, equaling over a fatality a day this year. The metrics of these crashes have risen 17% increase, over a four-year from 2017 to 2021, NHTSA reported.
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