As of March 1, the California Highway Patrol has started
cracking down on speeding violators statewide.
As of March 1, the California Highway Patrol has started cracking down on speeding violators statewide.
San Benito County, along with counties spanning the state, has displayed a trend of motorists’ blatant disregard for speed limits, said Hollister-Gilroy CHP Officer Terry Mayes.
The CHP will be doing specific enforcement days periodically throughout March and the following months, looking expressly for speeders.
“We’ll be out en masse to slow them down,” Mayes said. “It will seem like we’re everywhere. It will make some people very happy and some people very sad, but our idea is to make it safer.”
The added enforcement came with increased speeding statistics and an elevated number of complaints coming in, especially from Highways 101 and 156, Mayes said.
“If people can’t discipline themselves and be mindful of the posted speed limit, then they’re going to start paying the county,” she said. “And they’re not inexpensive tickets.”
The minimum fine for a speeding ticket in San Benito County is $110 for a violation of between 1 to 15 mph over the speed limit. It increases significantly with prior speeding violations and a higher rate of speed, according to the county’s traffic court.
Officers will be using various means of monitoring motorists’ speed, from traffic radar to the basic pacing of a vehicle (following a vehicle at a set distance behind to establish a rate of speed).
They will also be utilizing speed teams in conjunction with an airplane, which can radio down the exact position of a speeding car to stationary units on the ground, Mayes said.
“You won’t know until you see a row of black and whites behind you, and then you’ll think, ‘Oh no,'” she said. “It’s something to think about all the time.”
Because many people think of the speed limit as a fluctuating scale instead of a set boundary, motorists shouldn’t be surprised if they are issued a citation after a minimal violation.
Issuing a citation falls on the discretion of the officer. If a vehicle is exceeding the speed limit by only 5 mph in a maximum speed area, such as a freeway, it is well within the officer’s duty to issue a ticket, and the department will back them, Mayes said.
“Some people may say, ‘I was only doing 72, what’s the problem?’ That’s probably not the right answer,” Mayes said. “It’s not your personal highway. It’s a public highway, and we all need to obey the limit in a preservation of life.”
Speeding is the primary cause of collisions statewide, and once a car’s speed exceeds 65 mph the probability of death in a crash increases significantly, she said.
While most of the CHP’s concentration will be on the highways, if they see someone obviously exceeding the speed limit within city limits they will not hesitate to take action.
“Ultimately, it’s not my idea of a good way of supplementing the county at a hundred dollars a crack,” Mayes said.
