The Maryland State Police, along with assistance from the Prince George’s Police Department, conducted a speeding and aggressive driving enforcement initiative this past weekend along the Washington beltway.
The I-495 initiative took place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and included five troopers from the College Park Barrack, six troopers from the Forestville Barrack and six officers from the Prince George’s County Police Department. The initiative comes as a three-year crash analysis study determined that the Columbus Day weekend has a high propensity for speed-related collisions.
Over the course if the initiative, troopers and officers conducted 274 traffic stops and issued 265 citations, 89 warnings and 16 safety equipment repair orders. There were no reportable crashes during the time of this initiative.
Speeding continues to remain a safety issue across the country. In 2017, speeding was a contributing factor in 26 percent of all fatal crashes in the U.S. and more than 9,700 lives were lost in such crashes, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
From 2013 – 2017, aggressive drivers were involved in over 4,500 crashes on Maryland roads. In 2017, there were 4,526 crashes due to aggressive driving in Maryland, causing 54 fatalities. On average, they cause a combined almost 3,000 injuries and deaths per year. Also, in the last five years, over 85 percent of aggressive driving crashes in Maryland happened in the Baltimore/Washington area.
