Additional Information Contact:
ASP Highway Safety Office – Ann Whitehead
(501) 618-8133 –  [email protected]

  (LITTLE ROCK) – Law enforcement authorities in Arkansas and in five other states will concentrate their patrol assignments on speeding violations during the coming weekend (July 21 – July 23, 2017).

   “Obey the sign or pay the fine,” is a multijurisdictional enforcement operation plan designed to crack down on speeding offenses and make highway travel safer across Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Arkansas.

   “Speeding translates into death on our roadways.  It greatly reduces a driver’s ability to steer safely around another vehicle, a hazardous object in the roadway, or an unexpected curve,” said Susan DeCourcy, Regional Administrator, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Region 7.  “Speeding drivers put themselves, their passengers and other drivers at tremendous risk. All drivers need to be on alert; the posted speed limit is the law.  When it comes to speeding, there are no excuses, ‘Obey the Sign or Pay the Fine.’”

   According to the latest data from NHTSA, speeding was a contributing factor in 27 percent of all fatal crashes in the U.S. during 2015.  More than 9,500 lives were lost in these speed related crashes.  In Arkansas during the same reporting period, there were 531 total traffic fatalities, of which 90 (17%) were speed related.

   Federal highway safety experts consider a motor vehicle crash to be speed related if the driver is charged with exceeding the posted speed limit or if the driver was driving too fast for conditions at the time.

   The risk of 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 as on a road with a 45 or 50 mph speed limit.  However, the danger of speeding is not limited to highways. Seventeen percent of speed related traffic fatalities during 2015 occurred on local roads where the posted speed limits were 55 miles per hour or less.

   “During the ‘Obey the Sign or Pay the Fine’ operation, state troopers will intensify their speed enforcement patrols,” said Colonel Bill Bryant, Arkansas State Police Director and Governor’s Highway Safety Representative. “We’ll stop and ticket anyone caught speeding.”

   For more information about “Obey the Sign or Pay the Fine,” please visit http://trafficsafetymarketing.gov/.