The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s (CVSA) 2020 Operation Safe Driver Week will take place July 12-18. During this week-long traffic enforcement safety initiative, law enforcement personnel throughout North America will be looking for drivers who are engaging in unsafe driving behaviors on the roadways. Identified drivers will be pulled over by law enforcement and may be issued a warning or citation.
According to the Governors Highway Safety Association, less traffic due to COVID-19 stay-at-home orders may be encouraging some drivers to ignore traffic safety laws, including speed limits. Despite there being far fewer vehicles on the road recently, many jurisdictions are seeing a severe spike in speeding.
As the number of vehicles on roadways decreased in March and April, average speeds measured during the first week of April increased significantly in the five largest U.S. metropolitan areas. According to recent data, the average speed on Interstate highways, state highways, and expressways in those areas increased by as much as 75 percent compared to January and February.
- In New York City, transportation officials reported an increase of more than 60 percent 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 percent compared to January.
- In Washington, D.C., traffic decreased 80 percent in March compared to January, while officials recorded a 20 percent increase in March speeding tickets. Of those tickets, violations for driving 21 to 25 miles over the posted speed limit rose by nearly 40 percent.
- Over just one weekend, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, police charged 18 drivers with stunt driving, with speeds of up to 171 km/h (106 mph) on the Don Valley Parkway, a major freeway that’s limited to 90 km/h (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 Police reported a 40 percent increase in one-vehicle wrecks, which usually happen 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 to 38 percent above average to 74 to 75 percent above average in just one week.
To address the trend of increased speeding on roadways during the pandemic, CVSA selected speeding as the focus area for this year’s Operation Safe Driver Week. Click here to read more.