Are drivers following new speed limit on I-10?

A new speed limit on I-10 aims to prevent deadly accidents near the Jefferson Interchange construction zone.

However, it only works if drivers take notice.

News Channel 3 and CBS Local 2 used their own radar gun to find out if drivers are slowing down.

With the new speed limit starting two days ago, many drivers are still seeing it for the first time. That’s why the California Highway Patrol was also out Thursday making sure drivers take notice.

“People have a tendency to just try and go faster,” said local driver Gayle Cady.

The speed limit on most of I-10 is 70 mph.

“Most of them don’t slow down. They are on a mission, they are going the speed limit. If it’s 70, they are doing 70, 75,” said local driver Steve Schmid.

Now around the Jefferson Interchange construction site the speed limit slows down first to 60 mph, then to 55 mph.

“I think temporarily while there is construction going on, it’s probably a good idea,” said local driver Nick Primavera.

“The goal is to reduce the number of traffic collisions and the number of injuries and deaths. That is the bottom line, to keep people safe,” said CHP Officer Mike Radford.

But are drivers heeding the warnings?

CHP officers wrote 20 tickets Thursday to get drivers to pay attention.

“We are being serious about this, and we want to make sure everyone stays safe,” said Radford.

We used our own radar gun and found only about half of the cars slowed down to the posted 55 mph before the construction site.

“Hopefully they would slow down but most people are used to going through there at the 70 mph so they are going to keep going 70,” said Schmid.

At the construction site we found most of the cars and truck did slow down to the new speed limit.

“It is a little tricky going through there or has been. I usually do slow down going through there, want to try to be safe,” said Schmid.

The speed reduction comes after two major crashes in the last two weeks, one of them deadly.

“I didn’t feel very comfortable at all, no matter what the speed limit. It seems like everybody was going to fast,” said Cady. “You have to trust the authorities that they know better than we do.”

The Jefferson Interchange Project is expected to take another 14 months and that’s how long CHP said to expect the speed limit to stay at 55 mph.

Also, remember fines double in construction zones, so that speeding ticket could get expensive really fast.