STATE POLICE, MassDOT ANNOUNCE HIGHWAY SAFETY CORRIDOR PROGRAM; ENHANCED SPEED ENFORCEMENT Yesterday, the Massachusetts State Police and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation announced the establishment of a new Highway Safety Corridor Program for I-495 through the towns of Chelmsford, Westford, Littleton, Boxborough, Bolton, and Berlin. The program posts public safety signs that read, “Highway Safety Corridor / Laws Strictly Enforced” at eight locations through the corridor. In partnership with the State Police, additional patrols will be on hand to enforce speed limits, reduce aggressive driving and prevent distracted driving. This corridor has been selected because of the incidence of speeding and for driving-related crashes involving injuries and fatalities. The shared goal of the State Police and MassDOT is to drastically reduce the number of crashes and to encourage motorists to drive safely and observe the posted speed limit. “As both the winter season and the holidays approach, we want drivers to be especially mindful of the dangers posed by speeding,” said Frank DePaola, MassDOT’s Acting Secretary and CEO. “Establishing this stretch of I-495 as a Highway Safety Corridor allows us to sharpen our focus on an area well-known for excessive speeds and to enforce the laws to make this corridor safer.” The program uses radar technology to calculate the average rate of speed through this segment of I-495, and will be used to deploy State Police patrols during times where the data show vehicle speeds above the posted limit. MASSDOTs new program of speed measuring along the Interstate 495 corridor will greatly enhance our ability to conduct enforcement at the most appropriate times and locations said State Police Lieutenant Colonel Edward Amodeo. The enforcement program is a $201,000 effort funded through the Highway Safety Improvement Program as a strategy to curb speeding and other moving violations under the Massachusetts Strategic Highway Safety Plan. The program includes the purchase of the eight Variable Message Boards with radar. The data collected from the radar will be used to measure the reduction of average vehicle speeds because of the additional State Police patrols. In the future, the equipment will be deployed along other portions of state highway to establish additional Highway Safety Corridor campaigns. The radar equipment does not have the capability to identify individual vehicles or drivers; the technology captures the average rate of speed of the whole corridor, which is used to determine the most effective periods for increased speed enforcement.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 20:13:52 +0000
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