“Obey the Sign or Pay the Fine”

Buffalo, NY – Erie County Sheriff Timothy B. Howard announces Deputies are participating in the Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee’s Speed Awareness Week from August 1 – 7, and reminds drivers to “Obey the Sign or Pay the Fine.”

Deputies are intensifying enforcement of posted speed limits throughout Erie County and targeting roadways where data indicates there was a crash related to speed.  Deputies will stop and ticket anyone caught speeding, especially on roads in neighborhoods, and secondary roads where most of the speed-related crashes occur.

Nationally, 17% of all speeding-related traffic fatalities occurred on local roads -- where the posted speed limits were 55 miles per hour or under. According to the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (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 compared to a crash on a road with a speed limit of 45 or 50 mph.  It also states that crashes are nearly five times as likely as a crash on a road with a speed limit of 40 mph or below. About 15% of the country’s speeding-related fatalities occur on interstate highways each year.

An NHTSA research report, “Analysis of Speeding-Related Fatal Motor Vehicle Traffic Crashes,” shows that a major proportion of fatal, speeding-related single-vehicle crashes occur on rural roadways.

Across America in 2015, speeding was a factor in 17% of all fatal crashes on dry roads, and in 21% of those occurring on wet roads.

NHTSA considers a crash speeding-related if the driver was charged with exceeding the posted speed limit or if the driver was driving too fast for conditions at the time.

For more information, please visit http://trafficsafetymarketing.gov/.