While thousands of people will be celebrating Memorial Day in their own way today, there will also be less uplifting events taking place.
As is always the case over a long holiday weekend, there will be a number of accidents on our roads and highways causing property damage, injuring drivers and passengers and unfortunately, potentially resulting in fatalities.
Much of the mayhem on our roads is caused by our obsession with speed. We see it every day: cars roaring down city streets, ignoring traffic lights, weaving in and out of lanes, overtaking on the right, and you wonder what the rush is all about.
Traffic enforcement officials claim that the situation has gotten worse since the pandemic, which for some inexplicable reason has unleashed our inner recklessness. That’s why it was good when the Dane County Traffic Safety Committee announced last week that it would dedicate the last few days of May to encouraging drivers, especially children, to keep themselves safe on the roads.
Eighteen law enforcement agencies in Dane County join six school districts, Safe Communities Madison/Dane County and other local organizations on the committee to raise awareness about the dangers of speeding and encourage drivers to obey the speed limit. As expected, the largest number of speeders are people under the age of 24. They account for 38 percent of those arrested for speeding.
Safe Communities coordinator Tom Du Val noted that the number of traffic fatalities in Dane County caused by speeding increased 18 percent last year over the average of the previous four years. In the past five years, 58 people have died in speeding accidents in Dane County.
So, starting last Friday and running through May 31, officers across the county will be taking part in a “Slow Down” high-visibility enforcement campaign with extra patrols on the roads to stop speeding vehicles. In conjunction with this effort, the police department will be providing “Slow Down” yard signs that homeowners and businesses can put up on their property.
Speeding fines aren’t cheap – they typically cost between $200 and $800 depending on the offense and can also include license revocation and a significant increase in insurance premiums – but what’s worse is that an accident could result in loss of life or serious injury.
There are enough dead to commemorate on Memorial Day, no need to add more.
Dave Zweifel is editor emeritus of The Capital Times. dzweifel@captimes.com, 608-252-6410, Twitter @DaveZweifel.
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