With Halloween right around the corner, one state is serving up a frightful menu of fines for all road users to ensure that the issue of road chaos is put to bed. Road tricksters are in for quite a treat as the state is attempting to put a stop to reckless road behavior so that roads become safer for all road users. After 30 years of stagnating in terms of road laws, the state is enforcing some of the most grueling fines set to target speedsters, reckless drivers, and road users who ignore road signs.
Speeding is now a costly crime to eliminate road chaos
Since the issue of road chaos was brought to the fore in one state, legislative laws are now coming into full effect. Leniency is no longer an option in the state with speeding fines on the increase throughout the state. Minor road mishaps can now be rather costly for drivers.
Some speeding fines that citizens may see more regularly include:
- $50 fine for speeding just 1 to 5 mph over the speed limit. This fine has increased from the previous fine amount of $10.
- $400 fine for speeding 36 mph or more over the speed limit. This amount has also increased from the previous $300 speeding fine amount.
The increase in the speeding fine amounts is to curb the issue of drivers exceeding safe speeding limits. Since the state has seen a rise in the number of drivers who do not adhere to safe speed limits, this speeding fine increase was deemed necessary.
Protection in place this Halloween for all road users in the state
With the more stringent speeding fines in place, the state has introduced a law called the “move-over law”. As per the move-over law, drivers are required to change lanes when approaching stopped vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists, and road workers, when and if it is safe to do so.
Cait Dumas-Hein, Associate Director of Bike Walk Nebraska, was instrumental in putting forward this law whereby protection was put in place for a road construction worker, a mom with a stroller, or even a child on his or her way to school. Previously, drivers needed to leave a mere 3 feet when passing pedestrians or cyclists. However, the safer law enforces lane changes where applicable to increase the safety value for pedestrians and cyclists. This safety measure was put in place since statistics from 2024 showed that pedestrian and cyclist fatalities also drastically increased in the state.
Enforcing emergency speed limit reductions and ensuring flexibility on roads
With the changes coming into effect this Halloween, the Department of Transportation was also given the authority to manage road conditions. In doing so, the state’s Department of Transportation can temporarily reduce the speed limits on roads at certain times when deemed necessary. Speed limits can be reduced during:
- Traffic congestions
- Drastic weather conditions
- Emergency cases that are of high risk
Giving the Department of Transportation this flexibility means that highways in the state can be kept safer. This rule aligns with that of context-sensitive speed regulations. It is yet another measure put in place to ensure highways become safer. However, the onus still lies with the citizens in this state to make the right choices when driving on the roads in the state. However, this is not the only state looking at move-over rules and clearing highways for riders.
One state is fed up of road chaos and is changing rules
As per the official statement from the Nebraska Department of Transportation, Nebraska is the one state that is changing road rules after being fed up with road chaos. Limited consequences and smaller fines will no longer be a reality in this state. This Halloween, the fines have skyrocketed for the first time since 1996 in the state; and these harsher fines are necessary to ensure that public safety of Nebraskans comes first. This Halloween, road users in the state are urged to make better choices.
