Less traffic offers green light for speed-related road deaths

Before COVID, Kim Santos spent her commute down Loop 610 through Uptown mired in a crawl of cars and trucks, stopping and starting and changing lanes at low speeds.

These days, as Texas has moved to reopen the economy, the 34-year-old dental assistant is moving faster on her way to work, but more nervously. She does not even try to change lanes unless she must, worried someone behind her may be barreling through.

“That second Monday (of the pandemic shutdown’s effects) I was on the freeway and ‘WHOOSSH!,’” she said, motioning with her arm. “Somebody saw their chance. He was probably going 90 mph.”

Now, every time Santos commutes from her Klein-area home to her Bellaire office, she gets passed by someone far exceeding the speed limit, a sign that less traffic is giving some the green light to hit the gas — sometimes with deadly consequences.

“Unfortunately, more people are taking advantage of the open road,” said Texas Transportation Commission member Laura Ryan.

A Chronicle review of crash data maintained by the Texas Department of Transportation shows the overall number of crashes fell sharply as fewer drivers logged fewer miles on streets and highways for the period of March 12 — when many local efforts to restrict travel began as offices shuttered — to May 31.

“If you lower traffic, the chance for interaction — crashes — lowers,” said Robert Wunderlich, director of the Center for Transportation Safety at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute. “It is driven by exposure. There is no question about it.”

Compared to the same 80-day period in 2019, the number of reported crashes fell 40 percent, though the figure could change slightly as police departments often file crash reports weeks or months after the incident.

Statewide, the decline was not as steep when it came to crashes caused by risky behaviors, such as traveling over the speed limit or driving while impaired. For the March 12 to May 30 period, 646 of those crashes killed at least one person, only an 11 percent drop in fatal crashes compared to 2019.

In 2020, more speed-related fatal crashes happened, 155, than during the same period the previous year, despite the unprecedented decline in driving and crashes.

In the eight-county Houston area the disparity is more pronounced. Despite a 19 percent drop in fatal crashes to 115 for the March 12-May 31 period, the number of those that authorities say were related to speed rose 13 percent from the same period in 2019.

Ryan said the traffic-free freeways led to a scenario that “absolutely increased speeds, which absolutely increased deaths.”

The trends locally and statewide follow similar increases in speed and severe crashes in many U.S. metro areas, safety experts said.

“Even without traffic, our roads were no safer,” said Lorraine M. Martin, president and CEO of the National Safety Council, in a statement. “It is heartbreaking to see the carnage on our roadways continue, especially when our medical professionals should be able to focus intently on treating a pandemic rather than preventable car crashes.”

In the early days of the pandemic shutdown, officials hoped a hiatus on commutes could save lives. Ryan said state safety experts fielded questions about whether Texas could break its 19-year streak of at least one roadway death every day.

Rate of speed higher

Police, meanwhile, ticketed far fewer drivers, based on a review of citations in the Houston area.

In February, for example, the region’s three largest agencies — the Houston Police Department, Harris County Sheriff’s Office and Texas Department of Public Safety — issued nearly 7,500 speed-related citations.

In April, the agencies combined for 3,721 tickets, less than half the number written two months earlier. The three agencies saw sizable declines in March and May, as well.

What did increase during the pandemic was the speed of the speeders they caught. Combined, the three departments issued 123 citations in February to drivers allegedly traveling 100 mph or more, seven of whom were exceeding the posted speed limit by 50 mph or more.

In March and April, the number of excessive speeders cited jumped to 171 and 175, respectively. Forty-six of those were traveling more than 50 mph above the speed limit.

That includes a driver pulled over for traveling across the Fred Hartman Bridge at 116 mph ; a motorcyclist nabbed by state troopers that hit 153 mph along Interstate 10 in Chambers County; and a driver on FM 1093 cited for doing 115 mph in a 55 mph zone.

Less traffic led many drivers to hit the gas, said Sgt. Stephen Woodard, spokesman for the Houston-area office of DPS.

“When the cat is away, the mice will play,” Woodard said. He added that he had not reviewed citation data but troopers often will write warnings to drivers instead of violations. “Drivers will take advantage of that, which leads to bad things.”

Drivers letting ‘loose’

Along a variety of freeways, major thoroughfares and residential streets the common link for many crashes is speed.

Police cited it as a likely cause of the crash that killed Cristian Ayala, 31, as he traveled an estimated 60 mph down a residential street before losing control of his pickup at a curve near Telephone Road a few blocks south of Gulfgate Mall around 7 a.m. on May 25.

A crash April 20 that killed two pedestrians also was blamed partly on speed, according to the crash report.

The incident happened around 11 p.m. as Donte Gentry, 25, allegedly was speeding north on Cullen just south of Loop 610 as Adam Caesar, 35, and Jason Sanders, 38, crossed the road a block south of the nearest crosswalk. Both Caesar and Sanders were killed, though no charges have been filed in the crash.

None of the crashes came as a surprise to Cypress resident Matt Pallone, 44, who said even before the COVID scare, speeding was reaching epidemic proportions.

“The virus just let everybody loose,” Pallone said, adding that people who take precautions tend to be the same ones who obey speed limits. “When someone isn’t listening to the professionals when they say ‘don’t go out’ or ‘wear a mask’ and nothing happens, why would they listen to someone say ‘don’t speed’ unless they get caught?” dug.begley@chron.com