Speed and aggressive driving continue to be a major cause of death and injury on California roadways. With federal funding, the California Highway Patrol (CHP) is embarking on a lifesaving endeavor to reduce crashes caused by speed and aggressive driving.

The CHP received a $1.5 million grant for the Regulate Aggressive Driving and Reduce Speed (RADARS) IV program. The goal of RADARS IV is to reduce the number of fatal and injury traffic collisions attributed to speed and the number of people killed and injured in those collisions. To achieve this, the CHP will increase enforcement and add public awareness campaigns statewide, focusing on speed-related causes of crashes. Additionally, RADARS IV will focus on street racing and sideshow activities, which are a growing problem statewide.

“Speeding not only endangers the life of the speeder, but everyone on the road around them,” CHP Commissioner Warren Stanley said. “The RADARS IV grant enables our officers to improve highway safety and help prevent dangerous driving and deadly crashes.”

In Federal Fiscal Year 2016, speed was a factor in approximately 45 percent of all fatal and injury collisions in California. That year, 36,297 speed-related crashes resulted in the deaths of more than 370 people and injury to nearly 53,000 others.

Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.