(Council Bluffs, Iowa) The Iowa State Patrol is joining Omaha-Council Bluffs agencies and organizations to take a stand against speeding in the metro area.
Law Enforcement agencies joining voices together in a public education campaign emphasizes posted speed limits are critical to the driver, passenger, pedestrian, and cyclist safety. The Iowa and Nebraska departments of Transportation, the City of Omaha, and more than 20 agencies and organizations ask motorists to watch their speed. Today’s messages relating to “Speeding Awareness Week” will be posted on social media, digital ads, and dynamic message signs around the metro and both states.
As traffic volumes have rebounded from an initial decline during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, speeding has remained a severe issue. These two factors, speeding, and high volumes, have resulted in a staggering number of speeding tickets in the Omaha-Council Bluffs metro area while areas across the country are dealing with excessive speeding issues, Omaha and Council Bluffs metro area agencies are hoping to combat the problem via an educational campaign before traffic volumes increase even more during the spring and summer months.
“Metro area law enforcement agencies and first responders have noticed that speeding has increasingly become a factor in crashes, both in minor incidents and more serious crashes,” said Austin Yates, an engineer with the Iowa DOT. “This is an issue that can’t be ignored. Any speeding puts more lives at risk, which is why we partnered up to declare this week Speeding Awareness Week.”
Speed impacts those outsides of vehicles, to Changes in rate can have real-life consequences for pedestrians. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, if a person is hit by a car going 20 miles per hour (mph), there is a 10 percent chance of fatality; chance fatality increases to 40 percent if a vehicle is going 30 mph and then increases to an 80 percent chance of fatality if the vehicle’s speed is at 40 mph.
“Speed limits are posted as they are for one excellent reason – safety,” said Jeff Sobczyk, Vision Zero Coordinator with the City of Omaha. “The risk of fatalities even at relatively low speeds is too significant to make any speeding worth it.
“Speeding, both “casual” and excessive results in strict time, losses money but – most importantly – human life. That’s why, as part of Speeding Awareness Week, every partnering agency encourages drivers to slow down and follow the posted speed limit on roads. Information about the Omaha-Council Bluffs metro area’s Speeding Awareness Week can be found at: slowdownmetro.com.
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