Stop Speeding Before It Stops You.

Baxter County Sheriff’s Office Works to Save Lives by Reminding Drivers to Obey Posted Speed Limits.

The Baxter County Sheriff’s Office will be participating in a nation-wide effort to deter speeding from July 10^th to July 16th.  According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), more than 13,000 lives were lost across America in speeding-related traffic crashes during 2005. 

NHTSA considers a crash to be speeding-related if the driver was charged with a speeding-related offense, or if the responding officer indicates that the driver was driving too fast for conditions at the time or was exceeding the posted speed limit.  Speeding has been identified as a contributing factor in 30 percent of all fatal crashes nationally. 

Nationally, 86 percent of all speeding-related traffic fatalities occurred on non-Interstate roadways -- where the posted speed limits were 55 miles per hour or less. According to NHTSA, 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 of 40 mph or below. Only 14 percent of the nation’s speeding-related fatalities occurred on Interstate highways that year. 

We are reminding drivers to stay alert, to watch for and obey all posted speed limits.  Deputies will be working speed limit enforcement details as part of the STEP grant program that the Sheriff’s Office is involved in through the Arkansas Highway Safety Office.  Drivers are put on notice to “Obey the Sign, or Pay the Fine”.  

Speeding greatly reduces the driver’s ability to slow a vehicle when necessary or to steer safely around an unexpected curve, another vehicle or hazardous object in the roadway. In school zones or neighborhoods, that can include a child or an animal running across the road.

Among drivers involved in fatal crashes, young males are the most likely to have been found speeding. A recent study revealed that  38 percent of male drivers ages 15-20 who were involved in a fatal crash were speeding at the time of the crash.

/s/ John F. Montgomery,
Baxter County Sheriff