ST PAUL, Minn. — Most of us find ourselves in a hurry every once in a while.
But getting busted doing 152 mph?
A driver in Eden Prairie tops the list of drivers ticketed during a statewide speeding crackdown July 1-31. Officers from 291 participating departments wrote a total of 20,657 tickets for speeding during the saturation, with a significant number of drivers being charged with other offenses ranging from DWI to fleeing police.
"There have always been wild drivers. Even when I was a teenager, there were wild drivers! But COVID kind of escalated it," said Pete Hosmer, who has owned A+ Driving School in the Twin Cities suburbs for nearly three decades. "All of the sudden, all of these cars are back on the roads. People haven't allotted enough time to get where they want to go, so they're having to speed."
Among those tickets were 47 written for motorists exceeding 100 mph.
Among the top speeds recorded during the crackdown:
- 152 mph – Eden Prairie Police Department
- 140 mph – Minnesota State Patrol District 2400 (east metro)
- 130 mph – St. Francis Police Department
- 130 mph – Winona County Sheriff’s Office
- 118 mph – Anoka County Sheriff’s Office
There are stories that go along with the list of speeds. For instance, police in Wadena cited a father and son for racing each other, each driving 72 mph in a 45 mph zone. Crystal police pulled over a driver doing 112 mph, then arrested that person for DWI after they registered .25 (more than three times the legal limit) on the breathalyzer. The person busted doing 152 mph in Eden Prairie was also charged with fleeing police, and their vehicle was forfeited.
The Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS) says speed is a major contributing factor to fatal and life-changing crashes. Preliminary numbers indicate speed played a role in 63 fatal crashes so far in 2023, and 129 road deaths in 2022.
Minnesota's Department of Public Safety Office of Traffic Safety coordinated the statewide enforcement and awareness campaign, with funding for officer overtime provided by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
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