Speeding wrecks lives.

That’s the name of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s ongoing public education campaign, which looks to change attitudes toward speeding and remind drivers of the deadly consequences associated with speeding.

Speed gets you places only a little faster. It gets you costly tickets. It increases your chances of getting in a crash.

And the truth is, sometimes speed takes lives.

And in the process, it wrecks numerous lives.

It is simply not worth the risk.

On July 9, 2022, the Butler Eagle reported police said that a man charged in a five-vehicle crash last year that killed a father of three was traveling 128 miles per hour when his Jaguar crossed the center line on Evans City Road.

The eight charges filed against a 25-year-old Butler man, include involuntary manslaughter, homicide by vehicle, careless driving resulting in unintentional death, reckless driving, driving in the wrong lane, and exceeding the 55 mph speed limit by 73 mph.

The June 24, 2021, crash that led to those charges wrecked lives.

Five vehicles were involved in the Forward Township crash. It left some drivers with damaged vehicles. The 25-year-old man was taken by ambulance to Allegheny General Hospital for treatment of his injuries, the severity of which was unknown.

And most significantly, a father of three, Troy K. Andres, 44, died likely of blunt force trauma as the result of a high-speed crash, an autopsy showed.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that 11,258 people died in crashes in 2020. In all the fatal crashes, speeding was a contributing factor in 29%.

Last year, speed was again found to be a leading cause in nearly 12,000 traffic fatalities, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association, a nonprofit association representing state highway safety offices.

Across Pennsylvania, nearby Allegheny and Westmoreland counties are among the top 10 counties with the most traffic-related fatalities. According to the state Department of Transportation’s 2020 Pennsylvania Crash Facts and Statistics report, 5.3% of all traffic-related fatalities in Pennsylvania in 2020 happened in Allegheny County and 3.5% happened in Westmoreland County.

Butler County saw 0.9% of the state’s traffic-related fatalities in 2020. That was down considerably from years past. In 2017, 2018 and 2019, Butler County saw 1.5% of the state’s traffic-related fatalities.

In 2016, that percentage sat at 2.5%. Butler County saw 30 fatalities that year, PennDOT reported.

We’re grateful to see the number down from 2016, but any loss due to speed is not worth it.

It is not worth it to get somewhere a little faster. It is not worth it to put your life and the lives of others at risk. Speeding wrecks lives.

We applaud the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s effort and intentions behind its campaign, which will run through Aug. 14.

We hope the drivers of Butler County will take notice and slow down.

— TL