Yesterday, the California Highway Patrol initiated a campaign at the statewide level that seeks to reduce automobile crashes, and a new report explores the campaign in detail.
The campaign goes by the acronym RADIATES, which stands for “Reduce Aggressive Driving Incidents and Tactically Enforce Speed.” As that designation suggests, the CHP is going to pay particular attention to raising awareness of and eliminating those crashes related to speeding.
Data from the Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System indicates that a full one in three crashes that lead to either an injury or a fatality throughout the state can be attributed to a driver going too fast. In 2011, that led to 48,600 crashes related to speeding. That’s more than double the number of crashes related to inappropriate turning, which accounted for 22,100 collisions. 5,700 automobile accidents were the result of someone driving on the wrong side of the road.
All in all, these incidents led to 106,494 people being injured in 2011, with 1,100 people dying as a result of the crashes. The CHP hopes that their campaign can help reduce these disappointing numbers by 5%. To do that, they plan to oversee an effort that will involve getting the word out about how dangerous the aforementioned actions, particularly speeding, are. They will also be cracking down on drivers who engage in those actions.