A Democratic lawmaker in the state Senate of California, State Senator Scott Wiener, has introduced a new bill which aims to reduce speeding in the state. The bill would reduce speeding with the tool in which speeding is allowed, that is to say it would create change with how vehicles are built. Essentially, this bill, being referred to as the Speeding Fatality Emergency Reduction on California Streets Package, would require all new cars sold in the state to have a special device installed that would limit speed to not be able to surpass ten miles per hour above the speed limit in a certain area.
The bill identifies the devices that would be installed as, “speed governors.”
Wiener’s office released a press release this week with regards to the bill. In it, his office describes the battle that the bill tackles, vehicle fatalities, as increasing in number all around the country but especially in the state. According to a recent study, traffic accident related deaths were seen to have risen by 22% from 2019 to 2022 in California alone.
The Speeding Fatality Emergency Reduction on California Streets Package does not end with the smart device installation requirement for all vehicles sold in California, it also would require side underride guards be installed on trucks. This would be with the purpose of cutting the risk of cars, bikes, and pedestrians being pulled underneath a truck in the case of an accident.
Other requirements would be changes made to roads and sidewalks.
The bill would have to establish a new set of improvements on state owned surface streets. These improvements include newer crosswalks/updates to existing ones and curb extensions. This all would still be done with the goal of limiting the “California road deaths epidemic.”
According to Wiener, California Highway Patrol handed out over 3,000 tickets for drivers going over 100 miles per hour in 2020. This offense has only grown and worsened since, leading to countless accidents that could have been prevented if one of the drivers involved did not speed. These devices would establish a precedent that would quite literally no longer allow people to speed, which would ideally lead to increased safety on the road.
