The Arkansas State Police is gearing up for additional patrols along Arkansas roads as the holiday travel season approaches and drivers fill the highways again.
The yearly surge of travelers comes as covid-19 cases have mostly ebbed in the state and vaccines are readily available, but also amid a surge in aggressive high-speed driving state police have documented this year.
State police have seen nearly twice as many incidents of drivers reaching speeds of 100 mph or higher in the past two years, tallying 2,026 last year and 2,014 by Oct. 30 of this year, compared with 1,062 in 2019.
"There's nothing that connects the dots to covid, but that's certainly when you begin to see it," said Arkansas State Police spokesman Bill Sadler about the spike in speeding.
It's possible that drivers think the lower volume of traffic during the pandemic makes it safe for them to travel faster, Sadler said.
Lower traffic volume seems to have affected traffic fatalities during the holiday period last year, with 49 people dying in crashes between Nov. 20 and Dec. 31, according to preliminary fatality reports.
That's compared with 60 deaths in the same period in 2019, just before the start of the speeding surge state police are seeing. That year's toll was higher than the two years before it, but did not reach the 71 dead reported in 2016.
With state police anticipating more holiday travelers this year, "one would presume the risk would be greater," Sadler said, especially if the high speeds continue.
"We never want to anticipate fatalities, but we know from historical perspective, looking at statistical data, that it is a fact of life," Sadler said.
As in past years, the agency places more troopers on the patrol schedule during the holidays, preparing for the higher traffic, Sadler said.
In recent years, manpower has become a concern for the agency, Col. Bill Bryant said last month.
"Our application pools are down, our attrition is up," Bryant told state legislators on the Game and Fish and State Police Subcommittee on Nov. 10.
"Arkansas State Police could use more troopers right now, no question about it," Sadler said.
Despite the lack of personnel, troopers will shoulder the extra shifts during the holiday season, Sadler said.
"It's never been a problem," he said.
To keep the numbers of accidents down, state police advise that people begin their return trips as early in the day as possible, because driving at night always increases the potential for crashes, Sadler said.