With increase in roadway fatality rate, additional patrols catching distracted and high speed driving

It appears that low traffic volume has led to drivers making riskier decisions on Massachusetts roadways.

Dave Procopio of the Massachusetts State Police states that the MSP has seen an uptick in higher speeds and have undertaken action to change that.

“We began a speed reduction initiative across all five of our geographic patrol troops. Since the initiative began April 25, we have deployed numerous additional patrols during targeted enforcement periods across the state. The extra patrols to date have written 271 citations for speeding and issued 111 warnings to motorists driving at excessive speeds.”

MassDOT revealed today that driving fatality rates in April doubled from last year.

Troopers have encountered and taken action against several motorists driving at extremely high speeds, according to Procopio, some at speeds over 100 mph.

“The extra patrols thus far also have issued 13 citations for violations of the Hands-Free law, 12 for violations of the Move Over law, and 11 for seat belt violations since April 25. The additional patrols have issued 73 other citations and warnings for other miscellaneous traffic offenses.”

Procopio stated that the initiative is ongoing and supplements the daily road patrols.

The numbers reflect just the additional patrols under the correct speed reduction initiative and do not include enforcement activity from regular barracks patrols.