Business closures and stay-at-home orders brought on by the Coronavirus pandemic had an unintended side effect according to local law enforcement officials: an increase in speeding.
Cumming Police Chief David Marsh said of all speeding violations more than 25 miles per hour over the speed limit in the city in the past year, roughly half have come in the past two months. During that time, shutdowns led to lighter traffic on the roads, which Marsh said he believes led to increased speeding.
"Anybody that drives on (Ga. 400) understands that speeding is almost not even a problem because there's so many cars on the road typically," Marsh said. "With everybody staying home, with the businesses being closed, there's a significant uptick in the number of speeders, probably because there's so much open space."
Marsh said the problem is not exclusive to Cumming. He said the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office, the Georgia State Patrol and the Alpharetta Police Department have all reported increases in speeding citations along the Ga. 400 corridor.
He said that speeding remains unsafe even if there are low levels of traffic.
"A lot of people have argued 'well, if there's nobody else on the roadway, I should be able to drive as fast as I want' and it really just isn't true," Marsh said. "Number one, because you're really not the only person on the roadway and number two, when you're driving so fast, any change in the environment is likely to cause a car crash."
The statewide shelter in place order has since been lifted by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and several local businesses have started retuning to work. As a result, traffic has been slowly returning to normal and Marsh said he hopes fuller roads will equal less speeding.
"I want everybody to be careful, and that's the bottom line," Marsh said. "We've had, just in the last couple of weeks, a handful of serious injury wrecks in the city of Cumming and speed has been attributed in a handful of those wrecks."
To hear more from Cumming Police Chief David Marsh, click play on the video above.
