Autobahn in Ohio? Highway patrol sees spike in 100-mph tickets

FREMONT — The lure of the open road has been too much to resist for some Ohio drivers this spring. There was much less vehicle traffic as the coronavirus pandemic took hold in recent months, but the state experienced a dramatic increase in speeding tickets issued to the state's most aggressive drivers. The Ohio State Highway Patrol issued 299 tickets to motorists clocked at 100 mph or more from March 23 to May 3, OSHP data showed. That equated to 11 percent of all speeding citations issued by state troopers during that six-week period. Last year during the same time period, the OSHP issued 196 tickets for thrill-seekers driving triple digits — just 0.005 percent of all speeding tickets. "With less traffic on the road, unfortunately some drivers think they can drive a little faster or there's a misconception that law enforcement's not going to pull them over. In fact we are," said Sgt. Ryan Purpura, a spokesman for the highway patrol. "We're out there stopping the egregious violations, the ones that are the biggest threat to public safety, in the interest of keeping all people on the road safe." There have been plenty of examples of drivers using state and interstate highways like a drag strip. On April 12, at about 4 p.m., a 2014 Ferrari was stopped on Interstate 75 after being clocked at 148 mph in a 65-mph zone north of Cincinnati. Four Sundays later, on May 10, a 2019 Porsche was stopped three times in three hours on the Ohio Turnpike in Sandusky, Erie and Lorain counties. The driver was stopped at a higher speed each time — 87 mph, 98 mph and 117 mph. The latter two stops were in construction zones. "The reduced traffic volume on our roadways is not an opportunity for people to exceed the speed limits," Purpura said. "It puts themselves and others around them at unnecessary risk. "Our troopers and the motoring public need to band together to do our part to get through this. It's the same thing with traffic safety. Obeying speed limits will keep people safe." Aggressive driving is not only dangerous, it can be expensive. Purpura, a patrol spokesperson, said a vehicle was recently stopped in Wood County for going 110 mph. The fine in Bowling Green Municipal Court was $375. Oftentimes super speeders are detected by aircraft that times how fast they cover a quarter mile of highway. Last week, troopers at the OSHP Fremont post, stopped a motorist who had been clocked at 105 mph in an air speed zone set up on the turnpike. "The plane stayed with the vehicle until it exited and it came to our area so we got it stopped," said Sgt. Matt Davis. "(The trooper who issued the ticket) said the guy didn't give him any problems. He just acted guilty and accepted his citation." The increase in super speeders is in sharp contrast to the number of citations issued during the pandemic. From March 23 to May 3, only 2,741 speeding tickets were written by state troopers as opposed to 37,656 in 2019. That's an incredible decrease of 93 percent. Total enforcement stops mimicked that trend. In March, such stops, which led to a citation being issued, dropped by 52 percent in one year. In April — the first full month under stay-at-home orders — enforcement stops totaled 4,624 — a 90 percent decrease from the 48,346 such stops in 2019. For the combined months of March and April, OVI citations dropped 59 percent, from 4,379 to 1,815. The highway patrol stressed, though, that a decrease in tickets is not a license to act irresponsibly. "We're still making traffic stops," Davis said. "We're still assisting the public with broken-down vehicles, changing flat tires, still writing tickets. I don't want people to think if they get stopped (for a serious crime) they're not going to jail because of COVID-19." Davis went on to explain that if a crime is serious the violator could still go to jail, for the safety of the community. Non-enforcement stops have stayed consistent, according to year-over-year data. Such stops, which include such things as rest area checks, assisting motorists and warnings, went from 61,066 in April 2019 to 47,728 in April 2020. That drop can be attributed to less traffic. "In the beginning people really were staying at home. There was not as much traffic," Davis said. "After about 7 p.m. you wouldn't see any cars out. Now that we're reaching warmer weather traffic is increasing but there still is a decrease in overall traffic." Davis, who has been a state trooper for 19 years, has noticed something else during the pandemic: People are nicer. "The people I do have contact with have been actually pleasant. I haven't had anybody uncooperative, argumentative," he said. "That would be normal traffic stops, the regular citizens getting stopped."