The Seattle Police Department has partnered with other city departments and community groups to promote “Super Safe” roads for everyone. On September 11th and 12th the Seattle Police Traffic Section will be conducting emphasis patrols in the Capitol Hill neighborhood to improve the safety of everyone using our roads — pedestrians, bicyclists, and motor vehicles. The “Be Super Safe” effort is part of a long-term goals of reducing serious injuries and fatalities on our roads to zero
Focusing on enforcing traffic safety laws in areas of the city with high numbers of collisions is one way to ensure fewer crashes and the injuries associated with them. Capitol Hill is but one area with several high-collision locations. Traffic Officers will be on the lookout for people speeding, people traveling distracted, and people not obeying the rules of the road.
According to Seattle Department of Transportation data:
• 33% of collisions in Seattle involve speeding. If you hit a person going 40 mph, they have an 85% chance of being killed. By going just 10 mph slower, there is a 65% chance of surviving a collision.
• Distraction is a growing problem on our streets, despite new laws making texting or holding a phone to your ear an infraction. Over 1,000 distraction-involved collisions occur in Seattle every year.
• Almost half of all fatal collisions in Seattle involve impairment due to alcohol and/or drugs.
All of these collisions are probably preventable.
Help us get the word out and visit http://www.seattle.gov/BeSuperSafe for more information on how you can make Seattle’s streets safer for everyone.