Lead-footed drivers on Highway 240 better be prepared to back off the gas pedal or open their wallets.

Washington State Patrol troopers will be out in force looking for speeders on the highway between Kennewick and Richland, the state patrol said Thursday.

The two miles of highway, essentially between Columbia Center Boulevard and Interstate 182, is the top spot statewide for speeders for the second quarter in a row.

A recent survey showed 81 percent of vehicles drove at or above the 60 mph speed limit on the newly built stretch of highway, the state patrol said. And, more than 1,500 vehicles were clocked driving 90 mph or faster in the last three months of last year, according to the data.

The survey by the state Department of Transportation also showed the average vehicle speed was 63.2 mph on the highway, which leads other state roads with 60 mph limits. Nearly 6 percent were recorded driving more than 10 mph over the limit.

Two motorcycles and two unmarked Aggressive Driving Apprehension Team vehicles from the state patrol’s Kennewick detachment will “aggressively” enforce the speed limit, hoping to put the brakes on speeders, said Lt. Jay Cabezuela.

“They’re going to be out there every day … until we can hopefully have a positive impact with people’s driving behavior changing on that stretch of roadway,” Cabezuela said.

A speeding ticket for going 10 mph over the limit costs $113.

Read the rest of this entry »

North Dakota’s speeding and traffic fines are so low they make drivers laugh, and are out of step with penalties in several cities that set their own fines, law enforcement officers say.

“I don’t doubt that there’s somewhat of a reputation out there,” said Fargo Police Chief Keith Ternes. “As soon as you hit the border in North Dakota, press on the accelerator, because even if you get caught, the fine is little to nothing.”

Ternes spoke Friday at a House Transportation Committee hearing on legislation, introduced by Rep. Ed Gruchalla, D-Fargo, to greatly increase fines for speeding and other traffic violations. Gruchalla is a retired Highway Patrol sergeant.

The fines in North Dakota law prevail in regions where the local government has not established its own. State fines go into a trust fund that benefits schools, and they often are much lower than those in Fargo, Bismarck, Minot and other cities, which may set their own fines and keep the money.

For example, running a stop sign in most of rural North Dakota now carries a $20 fine. Gruchalla’s bill would raise the fine to $50. Bryan Klipfel, the commander of the North Dakota Highway Patrol, said the fine has not been changed since he joined the patrol in 1977.

In Fargo, a stop sign violation is now $100. In Jamestown and West Fargo, the current fine for running a stop sign is $30; in Dickinson and Minot, $40; in Bismarck, $50; and in Grand Forks, $71.

Read the rest of this entry »

Speeding motorists could be making an expensive mistake if they contest their fines.

• Admin note: I am posting this article simply because I was appalled by the insinuation that those who get tickets and contest them are wasting their time and causing problems with the system — bogging down courts, taking officers off-duty to testify, etc. Don’t let this attitude keep YOU from contesting your ticket. Then again, don’t get duped by those who offer a ‘guarantee’. Do your OWN research. Defend YOURSELF! Don’t roll over and just TAKE IT! Anyway, read the following and interpret it as you wish. Just wanted to let you know that I disagree.

Durham Constabulary Officers from Durham Police’s road unit say they have seen a huge increase in the number of drivers who are taking their appeals to court.Between March 2006 and March 2007, only five cases were heard at magistrates’ courts in the county, but since then there have been 20.

Each time the appeal has been unsuccessful, with hundreds of hours taken up in court time.

Police say that although they are exercising a legal right, they suspect the drivers have an unrealistic belief their effort to overturn the fine will succeed, a hope fostered by numerous websites which offer letters or forms which promise to get fines quashed.

They also believe a programme broadcast on ITV last year, which questioned the validity of certain speed detection devices, including the LTI 20/20 used by forces including Durham, may have also encouraged them.

In a case heard recently by magistrates in Consett, a man from West Auckland contested a police reading of his car travelling at 71mph in a 50mph stretch of the A690 at West Rainton.

Police said the lengthy appeal process meant the case took 16 months to be heard.

He claimed the equipment used in the police safety camera van was faulty, but the magistrates threw out his appeal.

Read the rest of this entry »

Officer claims he was taken off patrols, and transferred for failing to show “courtesy”.

A state trooper said he was reassigned and demoted after he gave another trooper a speeding ticket and after he filed an internal complaint against two other troopers who allegedly brandished firearms while arresting an unarmed civilian.

Trooper Zigmund Paul Jendrzejewski filed a 17-page federal lawsuit in Johnstown targeting state police Commissioner Col. Jeffrey Miller and three other top officials.

Jendrzejewski’s attorney, Don Bailey, said his client has more than 20 years experience as a patrol officer. While the lawsuit is about the trooper’s specific situation, it shows there is a double standard for state police brass and troopers who break laws and regulations, Bailey said.

“It shows the nature of the disciplinary process of the state police, which is a clique to ensure the safety of superiors, including Miller himself, while the careers of law-abiding officers, like Jendrzejewski, are sacrificed,” Bailey told The Associated Press on Monday.

To that end, the suit also refers to an incident that doesn’t even involve Jendrzejewski. Bailey said he investigated the incident, which he called common knowledge among rank-and-file troopers statewide.

In that incident, Miller was riding in an unmarked car driven by deputy state police Commissioner Frank Pawlowski when a trooper stopped them for driving 88 mph on the Pennsylvania Turnpike on Nov. 6, 2007.

Read the rest of this entry »

Unmarked van may have been parked illegally for a year

Got a speeding ticket in Boulder lately? You might just catch a break.

Boulder police and city transportation officials are investigating the possibility that a photo-radar van was parked illegally when it snapped pictures of passing speeders — possibly hundreds of them.

Cmdr. Robert Thomas, who heads the traffic unit for the Boulder Police Department, said he’s looking into allegations that one of the city’s photo-radar units was operating in a clearly marked “no parking” and “tow-away” zone along Broadway, just north of Norwood Avenue in north Boulder.

Boulder resident Mac Fraser, 67, lives near the intersection and said he became concerned when the van started parking in a patch of public landscaping off the road where Broadway merges northbound drivers into a single lane at the crest of a small hill.

“Those that live out here know they either have to slow down or speed up past a car to get into that lane,” Fraser said. “It’s a great speed trap — that’s really all it is.”

Fraser said the van has been snapping pictures of drivers and license plates in the same spot as many as four times a week for more than a year.

“My wife and I actually call each other, and occasionally a friend, when we come down” Broadway, Fraser said. “We’ll just pick up the phone and say, ‘If you’re coming down, the van’s out.’”

After the Camera told Thomas about Fraser’s complaint earlier this week, the commander said he personally drove to the site and looked for himself.

“The citizen’s right,” Thomas said Friday. “You can’t have a van breaking the law and a citizen getting a ticket for breaking the law — that’s not right.”

But Thomas said it’s also not quite as simple as that.

Read the rest of this entry »