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Wednesday, March 4, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Beyond the Sun
The Nevada Highway Patrol will conduct saturation patrols along the northern 215 Beltway today to catch speeders.
From 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., a "zero tolerance" policy will be employed and all speeders will be ticketed, Trooper Kevin Honea said.
Honea said the goal is to reduce the number of speed-related fatalities and lessen the severity of injuries sustained in collisions.
The theme of this latest effort, in the wake of this past weekend's NASCAR festivities, is "Leave Speed at the Track."
"Speed is a contributing factor in about 40 percent of the crashes that we respond to," Honea said. "We are doing what we can throughout the year to reduce speeding."
NHP will also conduct saturation patrols in conjunction with the Henderson Police Department from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on March 7 and March 14. Honea said the location of those efforts in Henderson is yet to be determined.
On March 13, NHP also plans to increase patrols along Interstate 15 from Primm to the southern edge of the 215 Beltway.
Jeff O’Brien can be reached at 990-8957 or jeff.obrien@hbcpub.com.
Again our pathetic government is using law enforcement to fill the budget gap by writing tickets. Zero tolerance is what? One mile over the speed limit, two miles over the speed limit, who knows.
I'll remember zero tolerance when the next law enforcement funding bond appears on the ballot.
It is all about the money.
So basically only those not adhering to the posted speed limit are at risk, right?
Personally I think it's a good thing - I'm tired of people riding my ass because I'm doing the speed limit. I drive the posted speed limit in the right lane and still people, rather than go around me on the left will insist on tailgating as if that's gonna make me speed up. If they want the ticket they can pass me on the left and go for it -
It is a manipulative fallacy to say "speed is a factor in 40% of crashes" and use that as a reason for speed enforcement. Speed is a factor in 100% of auto crashes because nobody ever crashes while parked.
The reality is that speed enforcement is the easiest, laziest revenue enhancer available for traffic enforcement, but the real cause of accidents -- poor driving skills, risk taking, aggressive driving -- are not as easily identified and ticketed.
We can either treat driving like the privilege it currently is, and employ proper training and annual in-car testing, or we can treat driving like a right and stop monitoring it. Anything else is lazy hypocrisy.
It's not about the money. It's about preventing fatalities. Just the idea of an NHP presence makes drivers slow-down to the speed limit. This is a good thing.
The whiners commenting on this article are probably all speeders.
Also, if you need extra training and annual in-car testing, maybe you should just take the bus and do the rest of us a favor.
If it TRULY was about reducing fatalities they would only pull people over going 20 - 30 miles over the limit and they wouldn't need these "special days". They pull over people going 4 and 5 miles over the limit because there are more people in that group to pull over and therefore they can write more tickets and justify their paycheck.
For months and months there was a moto-cop sitting there just west of Buffalo on Warm Springs ( back when there was nothing built there ) in the middle of nowhere and I'd see him with people pulled over all the time.
What's funny about that is no matter what direction you are coming from on Warm Springs within a 1/4 mile of that spot you really can't go more than 5 miles over the limit or you'll tear up the bottom of your car, so I know that everyone he had pulled over was nothing more than a revenue generator.
Maybe it's me... but rejco100, you don't seem to make any sense there. I'm assuming that's pure sarcasm, but even if it is it's wasted effort. You must be one of the drivers in the valley who just can't be inconvenienced by slowing down to a normal landing speed, in which case deal with the ticket.
That's a fairly unhealthy attitude there mar100. You mean to tell me you aren't willing to take a few hours out of your normal, maniacal driving patterns to slow down? I would think you'd just be quiet and thank the NHP for giving you heads up that they'll be doing this. Seems to me that looking at retribution ahead of time is completely missing the point. Just think for a moment how your life might be influenced by someone driving like you probably normally do. Lives all over the valley are changed several times a week because of speed related crashes. And do you really NEED to get to where you're headed a few minutes quicker? Most often not.
People who speed tend to be the same ones who drive inattentively, take undue risks, and drive aggressively. So cracking down on speeding will have a net gain effect on all the other contributing factors that lead to crashes. I agree that the concept of driving a car being a privelege has been lost on a lot of people. And just about the only way to remind the average Joe of this is to hit him in the wallet.
It's just a shame this is a story. I wish law enforcement wouldn't feel the need to publish releases ahead of time. Just do it. And do it all the time.
Oh, whosforus, another anonymous comment that has no basis in reality. Germany has REAL driver education and REAL ANNUAL TESTING and licenses cost REAL MONEY. If you can't drive at realistic speeds, it is you who should take the bus.
In the proper car on the proper highway, I can drive at 140MPH for hours on end. I'm certain that skill level makes me a better driver at 65 MPH than most.
Speed is relative to condition of the driver, the road, the car and the traffic. Trained drivers driving appropriately for conditions would reduce traffic fatalities. Face it: a car at 10MPH can kill when wielded by a poorly trained driver.
Driving in LV scares me during the 5pm hour. Only do it when visiting your town which is getting less often due to poor gaming returns. As far as enforcing the speed limits, I have lived in both OR and Wa and I can tell you that you can count on this happening the first and last of every month in both states and it has been happening for some time. We even had a WSP tell us he was a revenue collector for the state.
It is all about the money.
The county and cities need every dime that they get their hands on.
People are driving less and there is negative population growth in the Las Vegas Valley. That means there is a downward trend in the volume of speeders from previous years.
They will struggle just to bring in same amount of speeding fine revenue as in previous years and they are being ask to increase the volume at the same time.
It will have a good effect. There will be less accidents.
Perhaps, our car insurance rates one day will go down.
And I'll bet you can handle a blow-out at 140MPH better than most too huh.........get real.
Okay. Maybe it's about the money with good effects. Fair enough.
I agree with harske. NHP should be out doing this all the time...and without warning.
What blowout? Proper car, proper road, proper conditions. If you've never driven that speed under those conditions, what do you know? The answer to your question is yes.
I'm frankly tired of everything in Modern America being dumbed down to the lowest common denominator.
I'll step out of this now. Go ahead and increase speed patrols. They won't stop traffic from flowing at the speed it wants to flow (fast or slow), they won't stop people from exceeding the posted speed limits, and, most importantly, they won't stop poor drivers from killing people. The only sure thing they will do is increase revenue.