Operation Southern Slow Down hits Sarasota and Manatee counties

SARASOTA COUNTY, Fla. — Eugene Rider starts every morning biking 25 miles across Sarasota and Manatee counties.

“I have good tires. I inspect the brakes every day,” he said.

From the bike lanes, he shares the road with speeding drivers zooming past him.

“Sometimes it gets to be irritating, so I stay on the sides as much as I can,” Rider said.

He says he does everything right, from using hand signals to having lights on his bike.

But it’s not enough to make an accident 100% preventable.

“The biggest difference between a person driving a car and a pedestrian and a bicyclist is that you’re aware of the noise, you’re aware of how fast people are going past you on it with vehicles,” he said. “You feel how vulnerable you are because you’re less than three feet from a 6,000-pound truck.”

To highlight speeding concerns, the Sarasota Police Department has joined with law enforcement agencies across five states to launch Operation Slow Down.

The campaign, according to Officer Jason Frank, highlights how a majority of fatal and serious injury crashes are because of speeding.

“The only way that we can prevent those is to remind people to slow down. And the importance of paying attention to those speed limits,” said Frank.

Since Florida’s Super Speeder Law went into effect last summer, he has seen a difference on the roadways.

The law increased the penalties for driving more than 100 miles per hour or more than 50 miles per hour over the speed limit. But even going 10 miles per hour over the speed limit could change the path for riders like Rider.

“The bicycle rider could be startled. Something could be in the roadway that causes them to maneuver a little bit out of their bike lane. And if somebody is going again, just 10 miles per hour over the posted speed limit, it’s that much quicker that they have to respond,” Frank added.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, speeding has been a contributing factor in approximately one-third of all traffic fatalities for more than two decades.

Fatal accidents have taken from Rider the people he loved to ride with.

“I have friends that have been killed in the last two months. They did all of the right things, but yet they were rear-ended by cars and one was hit by a box truck,” he said.

While he understands they are many factors to why people speed, Rider hopes this campaign reminds drivers why speed limits are posted in the first place.

“They are the ones that are driving a vehicle that can make it hurt, or it can kill you in case of a crash,” Rider said.

He carries the memories of his late riding buddies every time he puts on his helmet.

If you encounter a speeding or aggressive driver, the Sarasota Police Department advises you to move over safely if another vehicle is attempting to pass, leave plenty of space between your vehicle and a speeding driver, and avoid engaging with aggressive drivers.