National Rural Road Safety Awareness Week: Slow down, save lives
ALABAMA (WCBI) – National Rural Road Safety Awareness Week. It’s a campaign with a mission: Slow down and save lives.
The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency is partnering with the Alabama Transportation Institute to drive home the importance of speed management.
According to Corporal Reginal King of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, speeding is still a top cause of rural crashes. A fact backed by numbers.
“In 2022 alone, there were over 400 traffic crashes on rural roadways of which resulted in 189 traffic fatalities. As of yesterday’s date this year, we’ve investigated over 1,900 traffic crashes on rural roadways that involve speed, which resulted in 49 traffic fatalities,” said King.
King said you should never get too comfortable behind the wheel of a car. That’s when the most mistakes are made.
“Complacency plays a role in a lot of the traffic crashes that we investigate on these rural roadways. There’s a misconception out there that ‘I can operate my vehicle better because it is a smaller roadway. I’m familiar with this roadway.’ However, that’s not the case. As you can see, the majority of the traffic crashes are happening on roadways. And there’s a common denominator in those crashes, and that common denominator is speed,” said King.
Rural roads are known to have low visibility at night. animals crossing, loose gravel, dirt toppings, dangerous curves and some don’t even have a speed limit posted. King said when in doubt on the backroads in Alabama, drive 45 mph.
“For county roads, the speed limit is going to be 45 unless posted otherwise. So it’s always a good idea to look for your posted speed limits. But if you don’t see one, never drive faster than 45 miles per hour when you’re on those county roads,” said King.
Operation Southern Slowdown is also in effect for five southern states, including Mississippi and Alabama. This campaign also focuses on slowing down across the South.
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