Time to slow down speed-related accidents

The following editorial appeared Monday in the Olympian.

Washington State Patrol Chief John Batiste is right to call for a crackdown on speeders.

Maybe motorists will slow down when troopers alongside the freeway issue $101 citations, not warning tickets. …

Batiste sent the right message when he said the patrol’s softer approach isn’t working. It’s time to get tough.

Announcing the push for traffic citations, Batiste said: “We have historically and consistently issued citations to only about 44 percent of those we contact for speeding. This means nearly six in 10 people have been getting only warnings. It seems our current strategy is not working. …”

Chief Batiste and Gov. Christine Gregoire are right to be concerned about the statewide statistics that show accidents are up 4 percent. Speed-related accidents are up 3 percent. Clearly, the warnings are not convincing motorists to slow down. Let’s hope tickets do the trick. …

It’s good to see the chief taking a more aggressive stand. His predecessors, former chiefs Ronal Serpas and Lowell Porter, focused enforcement efforts on four primary areas: speeding, drunken driving, aggressive driving and seat-belt compliance. That laserlike focus resulted in the lowest accident rate since the 1960s and put Washington state at the top of the list nationally for seat-belt compliance. Today, 95 percent of Washington drivers use seat belts.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving recently awarded the Washington State Patrol its national President’s Award based on the work of Porter and Serpas in driving down fatality and injury collisions during the past five years.

Now that accident rates are inching back up, Batiste has reacted quickly and properly. For the safety of the motoring public, let’s hope the chief’s strategy works.