As if trying to drive on the freeways the day before Thanksgiving wasn’t frustrating enough, the Arizona Department of Public Safety has decided to slow things down a bit.
To the speed limit, to be precise.
Operation Safe Passage, as it’s been dubbed, will put a truckload of extra DPS officers on interstates 8, 10, 17 and 40 — what, no love for I-19 — the rest of Wednesday and overnight, all in hopes of cutting down on speed- and alcohol-related crashes.
According to DPS, last year’s Wednesday-before-Thanksgiving saw 12 fatal wrecks, which killed 13 people.
DPS says it will have one of its vehicles stationed every 10 miles on the abovementioned freeways where they go through rural areas, while in the urban corridors that will drop to every two miles.
So, if you were planning on making the 100-mile drive from Tucson to Phoenix tonight in just over an hour … well, you’ve been warned.
This article appears in Nov 17-23, 2011.
Brian, 75MPH is fast enough on I-10. So quit your whining, slow down and arrive safely
(for you and others) at your destination and enjoy the holiday with your family.
Good! I am glad they are doing this. People are in too much of a hurry. No need to race to the grave. We get there fast enough.
Yup. Even the weekly likes to get a little Carhead sometimes. When you get there 30 minutes later than usual just give thanks you made it there safely.
So Mr. Pedersen, 75 MPH is not fast enough? WHAAAAA!!!!!!!!! That is the law, and if you choose to break that speed limit, your whining about that ticket will fall on deaf ears. I would rather be safe than have some idiot who doesn’t know how to drive cause an accident with possible deaths. SO thank a DPS officer who has to give up their holiday to make sure that the morons are safe.
in the immortal words of NWA F^&* the police!