High speeds and drunk drivers add up to unsafe roads
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It’s been a dangerous year on Minnesota’s roads.
Earlier this summer, Bayport police stopped a driver speeding 30 miles per hour above the limit with a suspended license — and an unbuckled child in the car.
A driver with a blood alcohol content four times what’s legal was caught by Rochester Police careening 57 miles per hour above the speed limit.
And a street racer in the Twin Cities west metro was clocked blasting 127 miles per hour down the road.
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Altogether, 68,723 tickets were issued during a four-month speed enforcement campaign, coordinated by the Minnesota Department of Public Safety Office of Traffic Safety. Eight drivers were cited for accelerating at least 120 miles per hour or more.
“No destination is worth the risk of losing a life,” said traffic safety director Mike Hanson in a statement. He pointed out the numbers were “only the people who were caught.”
The extra enforcement and awareness campaign ran from May 1 through Sept. 2, with 259 law enforcement agencies taking part statewide. Dozens of agencies tracked speeds exceeding 100 miles per hour.
In an interview with MPR News earlier this month, Hanson said a positive trend toward safer driving reversed in 2020, during the pandemic.
“The problem that we’re seeing today is those high-risk driving behaviors, specifically those really high speeds, we haven’t gotten those back under control,” he said. “And we have to figure out how we can get back to understanding that that speed limit is there for a reason.”
It’s not unusual, he said, for law enforcement to encounter more than one 100-mile-an-hour plus violation in a single shift. He added, speed is the number one factor that determines the outcome of a crash: “more energy, more injury, more death.”
Traffic fatalities are up 12.6 percent compared to one year ago. According to preliminary data, 322 people have died on Minnesota roads as of Sept. 20. During the same time frame last year, that number was 286.
In Minnesota, both speed and DWIs are the leading cause of traffic fatalities. So far, 94 deaths have been tied to speed, with 80 deaths tied to alcohol.
During a two-week DWI campaign around Labor Day, law enforcement arrested 1,235 drivers for taking the wheel while under the influence of alcohol, cannabis, prescription medications or other substances.
The highest blood alcohol content recorded was an Eagan driver who blew a 0.443 blood alcohol content, which is more than five times the legal limit.
The sobering numbers come on the heels of recent high-profile reminders that vehicles can be weapons — whether used intentionally or not.
Earlier this month, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announced additional third-degree murder charges against Derrick Thompson — who allegedly ran a red light at 95 miles per hour, plowing into a car and killing five young women. She also added a third-degree murder charge against Steven Bailey, the alleged drunk driver accused of killing two people and injuring nine others with his car at Park Tavern at St. Louis Park.
At a press conference last week, Moriarty urged the public to remember the legal consequences for reckless and negligent driving.
“It is an intentional act to get into a car after you’ve been drinking or using substances,” she said. “You also have to live with the fact that you’ve taken somebody’s life.”