New York State Police Clock Car at Insane Speed During Crackdown

New York State Police in the Hudson Valley wrote over 2,500 tickets in just one week during a speed enforcement campaign, but is it working?

On Thursday, New York State Police boasted on social media that they had targeted unsafe drivers throughout the region in an attempt to “help keep our roads safe.” However, the results show that our roads may be more dangerous than ever.

Thousands of Tickets Written During Hudson Valley Speed Enforcement

Officers at the Troop F barracks say they pulled over and ticketed 2,631 drivers in just one week. 1,196 speeding tickets were written and 65 citations were given for violating the state’s Move Over Law, which says drivers must avoid traveling in the lane next to a pulled-over police officer or other vehicle.

If this were the first time State Police had conducted a speed enforcement campaign, I’d say that it was a great success. However, these ticket blitzes occur quite often, usually resulting in thousands of speeding tickets being handed out. The number of speeders doesn’t appear to be shrinking at all, so aside from generating revenue for the state, how are these campaigns keeping us any safer?

Driver Clocked at Insane Speed by New York State Police

According to New York State Police, one of the fastest speeds recorded during Troop F’s crackdown was 104 mph. While they didn’t say where the speed was recorded, it’s clear that this driver was putting not only his own life at risk, but the lives of everyone else on the road.

A photo of the speed gun reading was posted on social media, presumably for its shock value. However, anyone who’s driven in the Hudson Valley knows that 104 isn’t really all that uncommon. Take a ride on I-84 or the Thruway and chances are someone is going to fly past you in the triple digits at some point during your journey.

Can We Effectively Stop Speeding in New York State?

The technology exists to stop drivers from being able to accelerate their cars faster than the speed limit allows; however, it has not gained much support from the public. Using GPS and onboard cameras, a car’s computer could determine what the speed limit is and change the vehicle’s ability to accelerate up to a set threshold above the posted limit.

Other ideas include an onboard “black box” that could be used as evidence of speeding. Presumably, drivers would be less likely to speed if they knew they were always being monitored.

While none of these ideas are likely to ever come to fruition, the promise of self-driving cars is one technological advance that many say will solve the speeding problem. Taking humans completely out of the equation may be the thing that saves them from their own desire to drive recklessly.