State Police mark Illinois Speed Awareness Day

Posted on July 26, 2016

By WJBC Staff

SPRINGFIELD – Illinois State Police will be marking Illinois Speed Awareness Day on Wednesday by adding extra enforcement patrols on state and U.S. highways, county roads, city streets, and Interstates throughout Illinois.

Police say speed contributed to 32 percent of all traffic deaths in Illinois in 2014, that’s 348 deaths for the year, or one life every 25 hours. Approximately 16 percent of the speed-related fatalities in Illinois involved pedestrians and cyclists.

State Police have released statistics which show the impact speed can have in a crash. When a pedestrian is hit by a car at 20 miles per hour, there is a 10 percent likelihood of being killed, that increases to a 50 percent likelihood of being killed when the car is traveling 30 MPH.

Police add 37 percent of speed-related crashes result in injuries and 87 percent of speed-related deaths occur on local roadways. They say speeding reduces a driver’s ability to navigate safely around curves or objects in the roadway.

More information is available at www.illinoisspeedawarenessday.org.

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