Colorado City, AZ – The Colorado City Police Department is stepping up its efforts to curb dangerous driving on Highways 389 In Arizona and SR-59 in Utah, announcing a decisive shift from warnings and roadside education to issuing citations for speed limit violations. This change in enforcement strategy comes directly from Police Chief Robb Radley, who stated that repeated traffic surveys consistently show an “extremely high number of vehicles failing to obey the speed limit,” despite previous awareness campaigns.
According to Chief Radley, a traffic survey conducted a year ago, and currently being repeated, has revealed consistent results: warnings and educational efforts have not had a positive effect on driver behavior. This persistence of high speeds is a grave concern, as it directly contributes to severe injuries and fatalities in highway crashes, which Chief Radley reports seeing daily on these segments of road.
“High speeds cause serious injuries and death and we are certainly seeing those speeds daily on our highway segments,” Chief Radley stated.
In response to these findings, patrol officers have now been directed to issue citations to drivers who are exceeding the observed speeds. This metric is a key factor in determining how the department enforces speed violations. While this provides a clear guideline, Chief Radley emphasizes that officers will still retain and use their discretion appropriately in each situation.
The core objective of this change is clear: “We have to reduce speeds to equally reduce the serious injuries we are seeing in our highway crashes,” Chief Radley affirmed.
In a related reminder on traffic safety, Chief Radley urges all drivers to remember the law requiring them to slow down and move over for emergency lights. This applies not only to police vehicles, but also to fire apparatus, EMS ambulances, tow trucks, highway safety vehicles, and construction vehicles, all of which require space and caution when working on or near the roadways.
