The Minnesota Department of Public Safety Wants To Know – Why Are We Speeding?

DISTRACTED DRIVING IS A SERIOUS PROBLEM

I drove my son to the cities yesterday and was surprised that traffic wasn't at the high speed it normally is. Then, out of nowhere, someone driving definitely over 100 miles an hour zipped by me and across three lanes, missing my vehicle by inches. Traffic on 94 towards the cities at 9 am was going about 75 miles per hour, which seemed much slower than what I'm used to. I'm assuming it was because of the fear of ice.

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WHY DO YOU SPEED? THE DPS WANTS TO KNOW

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety wants YOUR input on why we speed.

Police officers are just going to ramp up patrols to try and stop people from speeding because they simply don't know what's happening. Before the Pandemic, speeding caused about 20% of fatalities. According to the video, that number is up to 30% now.

On a side note, but equally as important, the DPS says 1 in 11 crashes in the state since 2018 have been caused by distracted driving and are asking people to do the following:

• Put your phone down.
• Don't touch your phone screen while driving
• Don't touch your dashboard screen
• Don't eat with two hands while driving

REASONS FOR SPEED

If you watch the video (Above) drivers reveal reasons why they tend to speed, and the reasons are all over the board:

• Late for work
• Taking a long road trip and having wide open spaces to go faster
• To keep from speeding, people say they have to set their cruise control to stop them

When asked in a survey why we think people are speeding more and more frequently, it seems that some people think that when the pandemic hit, the roads were more open and people saw the opportunity to drive freely.

PURPOSE OF THE SURVEY

Mike Hanson, Office of Traffic Safety Director with the DPS, says the purpose of the survey is to find out why people speed, what causes them to do it, and what it would take to get them to slow down. He says they are citing more than 1,000 people a year for driving in excess of 100 miles per hour.

The survey asks questions like:

• How often do you speed?
• Do you think speeding is okay?
• How big of a problem do you think speeding is in your area?

Authorities say that they will release the results of the survey in the fall.

What will it take for us to slow down? I feel like massive fines are on the way.