Troopers begin enforcing 'Operation Slow Down'

Raleigh, N.C. — Beginning Monday, the North Carolina State Highway Patrol will conduct its "Operation Slow Down-Interstate Initiative" to ticket speeders on North Carolina's interstates.

The operation runs through Feb. 22.

“The purpose of the operation is to reduce speed-related collisions on North Carolina interstates,” Reuben Young, secretary of the state's Department of Crime Control and Public Safety, said in a news release.

“During the past four years, 359 motorists have been killed and 14,297 injured in 50,222 collisions on our interstates. Speed is the leading cause of those collisions," he said.

Stepped-up enforcement and patrols will be conducted across the state, focusing on motorists speeding on interstates and major four-lane highways.

“Troopers are determined to reduce fatal collisions in North Carolina by going after speeders who recklessly endanger our citizens,” said Col. Walter Wilson Jr., commander of the Highway Patrol. “Speeding is the leading cause of traffic deaths and collisions in our state. Operation Slow Down will help in our efforts to reverse that trend.”

Dangerous driving can be reported to the Highway Patrol by dialing *HP (*47) on cell phones from anywhere in the state. For more information about Operation Slow Down, visit the N.C. Department of Crime Control and Public Safety’s Highway Patrol Web site.

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Latest Comments

To the poster regarding a back-up due to a LE presence - the whole circumstance of 'rubbernecking' is not their concern. If motorists would just DRIVE instead of looking to see if they see something really neat they can tell about at the office or when they get home, traffic would flow much better. At times it seems like some are looking to see if perhaps they can see a clip from a 'Cops' episode being filmed. Really folks, it's not all that interesting or exciting.

oldcorp
February 10, 2009 3:58 p.m.

"I'm curious, did you attend his court hearing, in addition to the trooper that wrote the citation, or did you just count on him not knowing that you BOTH had to testify?"--

Neither. It went to disposition court and he plead guilty. If they plead not guilty, then they can meet me in district court on another day.

leo-nc
February 10, 2009 3:38 p.m.

Speeding tickets are just another tax that the state applies to a percentage of drivers.

If the state was really concerned with safety, then they would implement an automatic governor system. This is trivial to implement with our current state of technology. This system would disallow any car from doing more then the speed limit.

The device would have a GPS receiver (about $75 from garmen) that connects to a small computer like the Gumstix ($120) that is connected to the electronic throttle to the engine CPU. The device monitors the speed of the vehical. It has maps of NC roads that include speed limit information (can get this from openstreetmaps.org for free!). If the driver applies an increase of throttle that would correlate to making the speed of the car exceed the speed limit, the device would reduce the throttle to match the speed limit. This insures that no car on the road could ever exceed the speed limit.

Will the state ever do this?

mspeth
February 10, 2009 11:10 a.m.

leo-nc:

'"Who is going to make the law enforcement slow down. If they blow by me at 75+ with no lights on , I'm falling in with them."--poorman

I had someone do that to me once while I was responding to a call. Called another Trooper on the radio with description and when I pulled to the wreck scene, had him pull over. The other trooper came and wrote him the ticket.'

I'm curious, did you attend his court hearing, in addition to the trooper that wrote the citation, or did you just count on him not knowing that you BOTH had to testify?

hpr641
February 10, 2009 11:08 a.m.

Hey good job cops! This morning you caused a whole bunch of headaches on I-40. I hope all this money is worth it because there are going to be more accidents now from rubberneckers and people slowing down to avoid you guys. Good job! My tax money hard at work.

Boogereater
February 10, 2009 9:39 a.m.