Speeding is a top cause of motor vehicle collisions and fatalities in Rochester, Buffalo, Clarence, Amherst and throughout the entire United States. A personal injury lawyer knows that around a third of deadly car accidents in this country involve a motorist who is exceeding the posted speed limit and/or who is driving at a speed that is not safe given the current road and weather conditions.

Speed cameras and ticketing by law enforcement officers are some of the different ways in which lawmakers try to force people to abide by speed limits. Still, drivers continue to go too fast. Now, Fox News reports that there is a new approach being taken to help to deter speeding drivers. This approach involves the use of the popular toll collecting device, EZ Pass.

Could EZ Pass Help Reduce Speeding?

According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), a third of all car accidents since 2003 that have resulted in fatalities have involved drivers who were going too fast. Highways and freeways are the site of approximately 30 percent of all of the deadly accidents in the country in which drivers are speeding. Only small local roads were the site of a higher percentage of speeding-related crashes, with about 38 percent of deaths caused by speeding occurring on these roads.

Preventing collisions on highways and freeways could save thousands of lives each year. In 2012 alone, 1,185 people died on U.S. interstates as a result of excess speed. In total over the course of that same year, there were 10,219 nationwide deaths on all roads due to speeding.

Many drivers traveling on highways and freeways use EZ Pass in order to avoid having to stop their vehicles to pay tolls. The EZ Pass goes in the front window of the vehicle and allows for electronic collection as the driver passes through the toll plaza.

Pennsylvania, New York and Maryland have now teamed up with EZ Pass so that a driver going through the toll plaza is also monitored for his speed. If the motorist is going too fast, he risks consequences. Currently, there is no system in place in which that driver is either ticketed or receives points on his license. Instead, a driver who is detected to be going over-the-limit is in danger of losing the use of his EZ Pass.

In Maryland, for example, a driver who exceeds the posted speed limit of 30 miles-per-hour in toll plazas could lose his EZ Pass for a period of 60 days. The driver will lose the use of the EZ Pass after two incidents in which he travels through the toll plaza at a speed that is at least 12 miles-per-hour over the speed limit.

There are some concerns in these states about privacy and about whether EZ Pass should be involved in speed monitoring. However, if this effort can save lives and reduce the dangers of interstate travel, the programs are likely here to stay and mores states may also move forward in an effort to improve their own road conditions.

Contact a Buffalo accident attorney at the Law Offices of James Morris at 800-477-9044 or visit www.jamesmorrislaw.com.  Serving Buffalo, Rochester, Williamsville, Amherst Cheektowaga and surrounding areas. Attorney advertising.