The National Coalition For Safer Roads Applauds New Report On Speeding and Teen Driving From Governors Highway Safety Association

WASHINGTON, June 26, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Coalition for Safer Roads (NCSR) commends the Governors Highway Safety Association's (GHSA) release of a report highlighting the dangers of speeding among teen drivers. The National Coalition for Safer Roads (NCSR) agrees with GHSA's efforts to promote the critical road safety issue, as well as the report's recommendation for the use of automated traffic enforcement to reduce teen speeding.

The GHSA report finds that speeding is a primary cause of 33 percent of fatal crashes involving teen drivers, a number that has increased by three percentage points over the last ten years. One of the recommended tools for reducing teen speeding in the report is the use of automated speed safety cameras.

"The number of teen deaths caused by speeding is astonishing. The report from GHSA is absolutely critical to shedding light on the issue and improving teen driver safety," says NCSR Executive Director David Kelly. "Automated speed safety camera programs, highlighted in the report, are a key tool in improving teen driver behavior and saving young lives."

Speed camera technology has been successful at reducing overall speed and the number of speeding instances. For example, in Scottsdale, Arizona, six speed cameras located along a busy urban highway reduced average speeds by six miles per hour over nine months. In the same time period, the safety cameras also reduced the proportion of vehicles traveling 11 miles per hour or more over the speed limit by nearly 90 percent (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety). Six months after Washington D.C.'s speed safety camera enforcement commenced, the city experienced an 82 percent decrease in speeding and a 14 percent decrease in average vehicle speed at seven sites where speed cameras were installed (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety).

In addition to reducing vehicle speed on urban roads, speed safety cameras also reduce collisions, injuries, and fatalities. For example, in the first nine months of the Arizona Department of Public Safety's speed camera program on freeways in metropolitan Phoenix, there were:

• 20.4 percent fewer property damage collisions
• 22.8 percent fewer injury collisions
• 21.8 percent fewer fatal collisions, resulting in 13 fewer lives lost.

According to the GHSA report, speeding contributed to 19,447 fatal crashes involving teen drivers between the years of 2000 and 2011. The report also confirms that the presence of one or more teen passengers in the vehicle of a teen driver greatly increases the risk of a crash.

For more information on speed safety cameras, visit NCSRsafety.org.

The National Coalition for Safer Roads helps save lives and protect communities by demonstrating how red-light safety cameras can improve driver behavior. NCSR brings together policymakers, community leaders and concerned citizens in support of red-light safety cameras, advocating for their use in cities and communities across the country. The National Coalition for Safer Roads is a 501 (c)(6) industry trade association. To learn more, please visit www.NCSRsafety.org, follow @SaferRoadsUSA on Twitter and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/SaferRoadsUSA

SOURCE National Coalition for Safer Roads