Iowa troopers writing more tickets since speed limit raised

More Iowa motorists are feeling the pinch of life in the fast lane.

Iowa public safety officials say the number of drivers issued speeding tickets by state troopers has gone up annually since the state raised the interstate speed limit to 70 mph in July 2005. In fact, 2009 is on track to top previous increases.

Col. Patrick Hoye, chief of the Iowa State Patrol, attributed the ticket increase to a stepped-up enforcement effort that puts more state and local law officers on high-risk roadways to concentrate on speeding, drunken or impaired driving, and seat-belt violations.

“We're taking a look at where accidents happen and where the DOT checkpoints are showing us that speeds are high, and we're focusing on those areas,” Hoye said.

“It's really a concentrated effort by our troopers,” he added. “Accident investigations time and time again will show that speed is one of the primary reasons for accidents. That's why we're aggressively addressing it.”

Through the first six months of this year, state troopers had issued 46,715 speeding tickets, said Capt. Curt Henderson of the Iowa State Patrol. In 2008, they issued a total of 85,244 speeding tickets, 84,487 in 2007 and 79,744 in 2006, he said.

Those increases contrast with state Department of Transportation data that say the overall number of tickets issued statewide by state and local law enforcement has declined each of the past five fiscal years.

Hoye said state troopers and local law officers are partnering on speed enforcements in the 22 counties where most highway fatalities occur because of public concerns.

Trooper cruisers stationed along high-volume roadways deter speeding, he said, and these joint efforts maximize scarce resources.

Speeding tickets issued by State Patrol

Speeding tickets issued by State Patrol

2006: 79,744

2007: 84,487

2008: 85,244

2009*: 46,715

*Through June 30

Source: Iowa Department of Public Safety

Budget challenges in recent years have reduced the number of state troopers from a high of 455 to the current level of 386.

“We've just got a real safety culture problem in this country,” said Tom Welch of the DOT's Office of Traffic & Safety.

“There's a perception among drivers right now (that) we have less enforcement officers out there in Iowa and across the country than we've ever had in the past,” he said. “As humans and as drivers, we all manage our risk, and when we don't see much enforcement out there, there's more disrespect of the speed limits by a small percentage of people that drive at the high end who are major contributors to crashes.”

Scott Falb of the DOT's driver services records management division said Iowa averaged 31 traffic deaths annually on rural interstate highways during the four years before the speed limit was increased from 65 mph to 70 mph. That average number grew to 41.5 fatalities per year on rural interstates since Iowa's higher speed limit was adopted.

“Fatalities go up every time we raise the speed limit, and the fatalities went down when we lowered it,” Falb said. “There was a definite difference.”

Welch said more officers in the field reminds motorists that there are consequences to their driving behavior.

“It's not in reaction to any short-term noticed increase in speeding by drivers. It's just that enforcement is an ongoing effort that we do to try to keep the speeding under control by increasing the exposure of the enforcement officers out there,” he said. “Without the enforcement, as we all see, there can just be a total abuse of speeding laws by certain motorists.”

An extreme case in point, Henderson said, was a situation earlier this month where the Iowa State Patrol attempted to stop a motorcyclist traveling 90 mph in a construction zone near Missouri Valley in southwestern Iowa. In the pursuit that ensued, the rider was clocked at speeds that reached up to 188 mph, so law officers backed off out of safety concerns and followed the cyclist by airplane to a residence in Omaha, Neb., before making an arrest, he said.

The patrol also is making more use of unmarked cars on rural interstates to nab speeders and target aggressive drivers, Henderson said.

“I'm not seeing a trend where speeds are getting higher and higher. Our focus has really been trying to keep those speeds from getting well in excess of 80 mph. We're trying to bring those higher-end speeds down,” he said. “There's just a lot of concern both over the amount of traffic that is out there and those aggressive drivers who are really trying to push the envelope on safety.”

According to the Legislative Services Agency, state and local authorities imposed nearly $13 million in fines for traffic violations, including speeding, during the fiscal 2009 year that ended June 30. About $9.26 million of that total was actually collected, and overall revenue totaled nearly $10.9 million when collections from citations imposed in prior years were added.