Official: Speed Humps In The Way Of Saving Lives

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- One Albuquerque city councilor said speed humps kill more people than they save. That councilor wants the city to be much more selective in where it places the humps and said he hopes to get a study done to prove his point.

There's no arguing the speed humps do slow you down. But what about when they slow down emergency vehicles?

"If we got to them faster some of them would have lived," Albuquerque City Councilor Don Harris said.

Harris wants to fund a study that pinpoints emergency routes. If a road is frequently used by emergency responders no speed humps there.

"What you find with speed humps is they kill more people than they save," Harris said.

City Councilor Sally Mayer said that is not true.

"I don't know of any way that you can guesstimate how many people speed bumps have saved. You might be saved walking to your car and not even know it," Mayer said.

Mayer said she spent years trying to get humps in her district and there is no way she's giving them up.

"There is just no way to quantify that. It is a guessimate at best," Mayer said.

The man in charge of all of the EMS and fire responders Albuquerque Fire Chief Robert Ortega weighed on the debate.

"Do they slow us down into those areas? Yes, they do. That's what they were intended to do. Do they put us in a frame where we are not meeting the response time set forth? No, we do meet that criteria response time set by the medical authority," Ortega said.

Harris argues during an emergency, seconds can mean the difference between life and death.

Mayer argues her neighborhoods are safer and happier with the slower traffic.

So what happens next? At the next council meeting, the full body of council will decide whether to go forward with that study or not.

Tax payers already paid to get some speed humps put in. The study may say tax payers will have to pay again only this time to remove out.

Albuquerque police Chief Ray Schultz spoke on the issue.

He said since the speed humps slow down traffic in neighborhoods his patrol officers find they do play a role in keeping speeders in check.