Richy63
03-13-2004, 10:19 AM
137 On the great basin highway. I will get a picture next run.
Glad to know Scottsdale PD can't catch me.
Police out in force to slow down Loop 101 speedersBy TONI LAXSON
East Valley Tribune
Updated: 9:04 a.m. ET March 13, 2004March 13 - Scottsdale and state police this week pulled over speeders on Loop 101 by the droves - except for those too fast to catch.
"We clocked some motorcyclists going over 130 mph," said Sgt. Jim Messerly with the Arizona Department of Public Safety, which is running a zero-tolerance project on the freeway.
"I'm afraid to tell you we were not able to catch them. . . . We don't have cars that perform like that and we wouldn't want our officers doing 140-plus mph."
Police said more than 300 motorists were cited this week for going faster than the 65 mph limit on the Pima Freeway segment of Loop 101, which since it completion in 2002 has become known for its similarity to a racetrack.
Scottsdale police in just one day this week stopped 92 speeders, including a 20-year-old driving a Corvette at 127 mph, detective Sam Bailey said.
"We thought it was getting better," he said, referring to a special enforcement period that began Feb. 17. "Then all of a sudden this week, people are driving in the 100s."
Seven Scottsdale police officers, each patrolling the freeway from McDowell Road to the south and Scottsdale Road to the north for an average of slightly more than five hours on Tuesday, pulled over eight to 23 speeders each. Those drivers were clocked at 80 to 127 mph, Bailey said.
For about a year, Scottsdale police have conducted intermittent speed enforcement projects on Loop 101 after eight people died in as many months in crashes along the Scottsdale stretch.
"We felt we had an interest in seeing that cars drove the speed limit out here," Bailey said. "The other thing is DPS is stretched pretty thin."
The DPS officers assigned to patrol freeways are too short-handed to do anything about Loop 101 speeders on a regular basis, said DPS officer Andy Dobbins. He said about 200 positions statewide remain unfilled.
This week, DPS announced officers in marked and unmarked cars from Interstate 17 to Scottsdale Road will, for the next several months, pull over anyone driving just a mile over the limit on Loop 101.
In just three days this week, DPS officers had cited more than 240 motorists on the freeway for speeds up to 105 mph - not including the motorcyclists who couldn't be caught.
"The numbers probably would have been higher if we actually had enough people to do the job," Dobbins said. "I worked it Wednesday, I want to say there were about six or seven of us, and I was able to write only three tickets. The rest of the time I was tied up at accidents."
He said it isn't difficult to find speeders on Loop 101 during nonrush hour traffic.
"What's hard is getting into traffic and catching them," Dobbins said. "If you are in the median and someone goes past you doing 90 mph, you can imagine how hard it is to get up to that speed going in and out of traffic."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4521059/
Glad to know Scottsdale PD can't catch me.
Police out in force to slow down Loop 101 speedersBy TONI LAXSON
East Valley Tribune
Updated: 9:04 a.m. ET March 13, 2004March 13 - Scottsdale and state police this week pulled over speeders on Loop 101 by the droves - except for those too fast to catch.
"We clocked some motorcyclists going over 130 mph," said Sgt. Jim Messerly with the Arizona Department of Public Safety, which is running a zero-tolerance project on the freeway.
"I'm afraid to tell you we were not able to catch them. . . . We don't have cars that perform like that and we wouldn't want our officers doing 140-plus mph."
Police said more than 300 motorists were cited this week for going faster than the 65 mph limit on the Pima Freeway segment of Loop 101, which since it completion in 2002 has become known for its similarity to a racetrack.
Scottsdale police in just one day this week stopped 92 speeders, including a 20-year-old driving a Corvette at 127 mph, detective Sam Bailey said.
"We thought it was getting better," he said, referring to a special enforcement period that began Feb. 17. "Then all of a sudden this week, people are driving in the 100s."
Seven Scottsdale police officers, each patrolling the freeway from McDowell Road to the south and Scottsdale Road to the north for an average of slightly more than five hours on Tuesday, pulled over eight to 23 speeders each. Those drivers were clocked at 80 to 127 mph, Bailey said.
For about a year, Scottsdale police have conducted intermittent speed enforcement projects on Loop 101 after eight people died in as many months in crashes along the Scottsdale stretch.
"We felt we had an interest in seeing that cars drove the speed limit out here," Bailey said. "The other thing is DPS is stretched pretty thin."
The DPS officers assigned to patrol freeways are too short-handed to do anything about Loop 101 speeders on a regular basis, said DPS officer Andy Dobbins. He said about 200 positions statewide remain unfilled.
This week, DPS announced officers in marked and unmarked cars from Interstate 17 to Scottsdale Road will, for the next several months, pull over anyone driving just a mile over the limit on Loop 101.
In just three days this week, DPS officers had cited more than 240 motorists on the freeway for speeds up to 105 mph - not including the motorcyclists who couldn't be caught.
"The numbers probably would have been higher if we actually had enough people to do the job," Dobbins said. "I worked it Wednesday, I want to say there were about six or seven of us, and I was able to write only three tickets. The rest of the time I was tied up at accidents."
He said it isn't difficult to find speeders on Loop 101 during nonrush hour traffic.
"What's hard is getting into traffic and catching them," Dobbins said. "If you are in the median and someone goes past you doing 90 mph, you can imagine how hard it is to get up to that speed going in and out of traffic."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4521059/