SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Speed and aggressive driving, the main causes of traffic collisions in California, will be the focus of a year-long education and enforcement campaign by the California Highway Patrol (CHP) that started October 1, 2017.
With the support of a federal traffic safety grant titled Regulate Aggressive Driving and Reduce Speed II (RADARS II), the CHP will educate motorists about the dangers of aggressive driving and actively enforce aggressive driving laws. The primary goal of the grant is to see a five percent reduction in the number of fatal and injury traffic collisions caused by speed, improper turning, and driving on the wrong side of the road. The project will also focus on street racing and sideshows.
“Dangerous behavior while driving is no accident,” CHP Acting Commissioner Warren Stanley said. “RADARS II will help the CHP enhance its efforts to change these behaviors through enhanced enforcement and an active public awareness campaign.”
Speed is the number one cause of traffic collisions in California, and speed combined with aggressive driving contributes to the vast majority of serious collisions in California. In federal fiscal year 2014-2015, speed was a factor in approximately 43 percent of all fatal and injury collisions in the state. That year, more than 29,644 speed-related collisions resulted in almost 290 deaths and injury to more than 43,464 people.
Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
