MARYSVILLE – When a state trooper stopped a 1997 BMW 328 coupe doing 103 mph along I-5 in Lynnwood on Thursday, the Seattle man behind the wheel told police he was late for work.
“There’s no excuse to be driving at those speeds,” Washington State Patrol trooper Kirk Rudeen said.
The man, 29, was jailed for reckless driving.
Thursday’s arrest is one of many high-speed cases recently.
There’s the Mukilteo man police caught driving a motorcycle at 140 mph. A few weeks later two men were clocked going 140 mph along I-5. This week began with two motorcycle riders being tagged for racing at speeds approaching 115 mph.
Beginning Sunday, it will cost more to indulge a need for speed.
That’s when traffic penalties statewide are scheduled to go up.
People nabbed driving 10 mph over the speed limit on I-5 will face a $124 fine, an $11 increase, Rudeen said.
Hitting 30 mph over the speed limit will lead to a ticket of nearly $300. Go even faster, and troopers may send you to jail.
“If you’re talking about getting pulled over at those speeds, you’re looking at getting arrested for reckless driving and getting booked into the county jail, a criminal charge,” Rudeen said.
The combination of higher penalties and increased enforcement hopefully will reduce speed-related accidents, officials said.
“We are having a definite impact, the trend is going the right way,” Rudeen said.
A stretch of I-5 in Marysville once had the notoriety of being the state’s third-fastest stretch of freeway. It’s now slipped to fifth fastest, he said.
Still, there’s more work to be done, Rudeen said.
Since January, nearly one in six people nabbed by State Patrol aircraft in Snohomish County have been driving at speeds greater than 90 mph, Rudeen said. More than 50 vehicles have been caught driving over 90 mph on I-5.
“It’s these drivers that put huge numbers of innocent drivers at risk,” Rudeen said. “It’s not only a disregard for your life but a disregard for the other motorists around you.”
Driving at high speeds leaves little room for error, and when something goes wrong, there’s often a fatal accident, he said.
Last year, about 575 people died on Washington state roads. About 40 percent of those accidents were blamed on speed.
“If we have a chance to save over 250 lives, are we going to do that? Absolutely,” Rudeen said.
The county’s growing population means that even small accidents can create big traffic headaches, said Travis Phelps, a state transportation spokesman.
“We’ve had small collisions on Highway 9 that caused four-mile-long backups,” he said.
Slowing down speeders actually may make the commute faster for law-abiding drivers, Rudeen said.
“If we’re preventing these collisions from happening, then we’re preventing traffic backups,” he said.
It’s not just troopers who are helping keep area roads safe, he said. Police rely on drivers to be the eyes and ears of the community.
“If they can safely make an emergency 911 call, it usually punches it right into the dispatch center,” Rudeen said. “If we have someone in the area, we’ll definitely try to get them stopped.”
Fines on the rise
Traffic fines increase statewide Sunday. Here are the new fines for speeding:
Source: Washington State Patrol
Reporter Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3437 or jholtz@heraldnet.com.
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