Speed enforcement campaign wraps up on WV roads – WV MetroNews

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Governor’s Highway Safety Program will be analyzing data from a speed enforcement campaign that ends Monday.

Program manager Amy Boggs said the state partnered with the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) during the month of July for a reason.

“That is one of our deadliest months as far as crashes or fatalities. There’s a lot more people out there,” Boggs told MetroNews.

The purpose of the campaign was to prevent speeding and distracted driving so that everyone can be safe on the roads. Boggs said state and local law enforcement agencies worked overtime hours to patrol their communities.

“I think there’s been a pretty good response from the agencies doing this. They’ve been all over the place, not just in work zones but we’ve got a lot of problem roadways all over the state,” she said.

Boggs said 25-30 percent of fatalities on West Virginia roads are typically speed-related.

“That is combined, so it’s not just only speed. Some of that speed is also impaired or not wearing their seatbelts,” she said.

Funding from the federal government was used to pay West Virginia law enforcement for July’s campaign.

“We use that funding to try to change driver behavior, so we award out money for enforcement and we also do media and education,” Boggs said.

A similar speed enforcement campaign will take place in September. Boggs said they hope July’s data will help them address gaps in enforcement.

“We’ll see what actually happened and then if there are areas that are problem areas that don’t seem like they really got covered, we’ll probably reach out to some agencies directly,” she said.