The Iowa State Patrol says troopers have stopped motorists traveling at more than twice the posted speed limit on Iowa highways.
State Patrol Sergeant Alex Dinkla says the speeds being recorded are alarming.
“Some of the speeds that we’ve actually tracked here: 164, 151, 142,” Dinkla says. “Those are actual speeds that everyday citizens, not in race cars, in ‘plain Jane’ automobiles are driving and choosing to drive.”
Dinkla says while troopers practice high-speed driving and stopping techniques at the Iowa Speedway in Newton, patrol vehicles would never reach those speeds during a pursuit.
“When people are driving that fast, that’s dangerous,” Dinkla says.
Dinkla made the comments during a recent episode of Iowa PBS’s “Iowa Press.”
State Patrol records show troopers wrote more than 1,000 tickets last year to drivers clocked at speeds exceeding 100 miles an hour. A bill has been introduced in the Iowa House that would significantly increase fines for excessive speeding.
Representative Joshua Meggers of Grundy Center, a state trooper, says he stopped a driver last summer traveling 103 miles an hour on a two-lane highway.
Data from the Legislative Services Agency shows the Iowa State Patrol, along with city police and county sheriff’s departments, are expected to issue between 10,000 and 11,000 tickets this year to motorists driving at least 20 miles an hour over the speed limit.
