As far as highways go, you don’t get much bigger than I-80. It stretches from New York to California and runs through 11 states. In fact, it’s the second longest in the US. So given that last year we saw over 32,000 road fatalities, it’s a pretty big deal that the “I-80 Challenge” is attempting a goal of zero fatalities between July 24 and July 31st on the entirety of its 2,900 miles.
The public awareness campaign is being coupled with a huge increase in law enforcement. That means that there will be a great number of state police on the roads with their radar guns just waiting for someone to slip up.
The challenge is being spearheaded by the Iowa State Patrol after they introduced the concept because of an increase in traffic fatalities along I-80 due to summer vacation travelers. State police officers from all 11 states will be participating in the crackdown in the hopes of keeping the roads safe for a whole week. So as always, drive safe and keep the shiny side up.
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Source: fleetowner
And let me guess…they will be focusing on trucks right? Over-regulation (of truckers) and under-education (of four-wheelers) is the bigger slice of the proverbial pie. If they want saferroads, they need to take after nevada’s Badge on Board program.
According to the National Highway Safety Transportation Administration (NHTSA), there were 350 fatalities along I-80 from 2009-2011. During a ten year period, there was an average of five accidents per day on the 300 miles of I-80 which run through Iowa. Where do you get 32000?
32,000 is national annual fatalities. Saving lives on I-80 is great, and the lessons learned here could have a wider reach.
Pretty sure speeding isn’t causing these deaths.
Lol 0 deaths in 8 days? Yeah right, okay.
If the increase in traffic fatalities on I-80 is due to summer vacation travelers, as this article says, then the obvious solution is to stop the summer travelers from causing the problem.
It’s no doubt just another politically-correct solution to an actual non-issue, but “we can make a lot of $$ and show the peons who’s in charge.”
This “crackdown” has nothing to do with passenger vehicles. This is 100% about trucks, they are going to do what California has been doing with their inspection blitz. It’s just made to look this way so they can justify the massive amount of overtime for police officers. At $500 an inspection they are going to get every truck they can for a week so they can pay for that overtime and then some. Also the Badge on Board is not just Nevada many states do that now.
i was just on I-80 westbound today in pa and there was a car that was turned upside down so much for 0 deaths.
Wonder why nobody ever sees the real picture? A cop every 5 feet will never prevent even one accident. As long as vehicles of any type are operated by humans, there will always be the element of human error, not to mention mechanical failures. Has anyone ever seen a cop car that was hit while parked on the shoulder? I rest my case. Why does the government think they can mandate zero anything? Bunch of morons.
A whistleblower at my job had the Highway Patrol inspecting the vehicles last week. Sqeaky wheel deal. Highway patrolman at 8:00 am, BANG shuts off his patrol truck goes to work.