Yahoo Finance NC must put brakes on speeders before more die, public officials and experts say
New evidence that North Carolina is failing to punish and prevent extreme speeding is starting to spur action across the state.
Some North Carolina prosecutors say they have begun to get tougher on the most egregious speeders.
The head of a key highway safety program said he plans to launch a task force aimed at reducing speeding. A Charlotte City Council committee will look for solutions, too.
And the new commander of the state Highway Patrol is launching a study that he hopes will show lawmakers the need for more funding to enforce traffic laws.
These are among the changes prompted so far by “Death in the Fast Lane,” a Charlotte Observer and News & Observer investigation into the growing problem of extreme speeding in North Carolina.
The newspapers documented that extreme speeding — where drivers fly 20, 30, even 50 mph over the speed limit — has increased dramatically in North Carolina, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic began. So have deaths from speed-related crashes. More than 400 people died in speed-related wrecks in the state last year, the most in more than a decade.
Yet speeding enforcement has failed to keep pace with the state’s growth. On top of that, the state’s overwhelmed courts let thousands of repeat speeders off easy, the newspapers found. As a result, many in North Carolina are able to drive at extreme speeds and escape punishment.
Mark Ezzell, director of the N.C. Governor’s Highway Safety Program, said the series inspired him to study measures that help put the brakes on speeders. He said he plans to convene a task force to examine steps to reduce speeding in North Carolina, something it has done to reduce drunk driving and increase the use of seat belts and child safety seats.
Charlotte City Council member Larken Egleston, who chairs the city’s Safe Communities committee, says he directed the panel to examine the city’s speeding problem and come up with recommendations on ways to slow drivers down.
“Your research has demonstrated how big a problem it is — and how dire the consequences can be,” he said.
Col. Freddy Johnson, who became the commander of the Highway Patrol two months ago, said his agency plans to partner with other law enforcement offices to step up speeding enforcement in areas where the problems are most severe.
Johnson noted that about 160 trooper positions — more than 10% of the total positions — are vacant. He is directing his agency to do a detailed study of Highway Patrol call volumes and staffing, with an eye toward demonstrating the agency’s staffing needs to the General Assembly, he said.
“The need is there,” Johnson told the Observer in his first media interview since assuming the Highway Patrol’s top job. “North Carolina is a large and growing state … We’ve just got to have stronger visibility out there.”
The newspapers’ investigation found that despite the state’s rapid growth over the past decade, speeding enforcement has actually declined.
That’s largely because workloads for law enforcement agencies have been increasing far faster than staffing. From 2011 to 2019, calls for service to the State Highway Patrol increased about 16%, according to state data. But over the past 10 years, the number of Highway Patrol troopers has remained flat.
Officers in other law enforcement agencies are stretched thin, too.
“With everything going on since last year, officers are overwhelmed and tired,” said Capt. Dave Harris, who supervises the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department division that’s in charge of traffic enforcement.
Grady Hunt, a state Board of Transportation member who leads the county’s Vision Zero task force on highway safety, said reminding people that wearing seat belts saves lives and is the smart thing to do. But speeding requires a different approach, Hunt says.
“The only thing that’s going to resolve the speeding issue would be law enforcement. Just stricter enforcement,“ he said. “Overall enforcement throughout the whole process, from ticketing to disposition in the court system, is going to have to be more stern and strict, or else the message is just not getting across.”
Do cash-starved courts need more resources?
The newspapers’ investigation found that in the past five years, fewer than 5% of extreme speeders — those charged with going 20 mph or more over the limit — were convicted as originally charged.
The rest got plea deals, had their charges dismissed or got breaks from judges that allowed them to avoid higher insurance rates and points on their driver’s licenses.
Many of North Carolina’s traffic courts are overwhelmed, with some prosecutors handing more than 1,000 cases in a single session of court. Many prosecutors say they have no time to review the driving records of most speeding drivers. In the push to clear clogged dockets, prosecutors offer deals to almost everyone charged with speeding.
The newspapers reported that in thousands of cases involving drivers charged with going more than 25 mph over the limit, prosecutors in Mecklenburg and other counties offered “improper equipment” pleas - deals that allowed drivers to claim without proof that their speedometers weren’t working and thereby avoid license and insurance penalties.
Mecklenburg County District Attorney Spencer Merriweather said Wednesday that because of limited courtrooms and resources, prosecutors must make hard choices about which cases to prioritize.
“Some might look at this series and say laws need to be tightened,” Merriweather said in an emailed statement.
But that, Merriweather said, isn’t enough.
“We have seen decades of legislative changes with very little increase in resources in our court systems necessary to enforce those laws,” he wrote. “Until that changes … it is difficult to see how the courts could substantially alter the manner in which speeding tickets are adjudicated.”
Merriweather’s office has taken some steps to get tougher with the most flagrant speeders.
After being informed of the Observer’s findings, leaders of the Mecklenburg DA’s office reminded prosecutors that improper equipment pleas weren’t appropriate for the most egregious speeding cases, according to Bruce Lillie, Mecklenburg’s deputy district attorney.
According to the newspapers’ analysis, Richmond and Anson counties had the lowest rates in the state when it came to convicting extreme speeders as charged. Over the past five years, fewer than 2% of extreme speeders in those counties have been convicted as charged.
Reece Saunders, the District Attorney in those counties, said that in the months since talking with an Observer reporter about the findings, he has “tightened up on extreme speeding.” Drivers charged with going more than 100 mph must now plead guilty as charged or go to trial, he said.
“If they’re going over 100 mph, I’m saying I can’t help you,” Saunders said.
Resources needed to keep people safe
Most of the five state lawmakers interviewed by the Observer for this story said they saw a need for more resources for enforcement and the courts. Gov. Roy Cooper agrees.
“It’s clear we need to find better ways to get people to slow down,” Ford Porter, a spokesman for the governor, wrote in an email to the Observer. “Traffic laws are critical to public safety and Governor Cooper wants to make sure the North Carolina State Highway Patrol and local law enforcement, as well as court officials, have the resources and training to keep pedestrians and the motoring public safe.”
State Sen. Toby Fitch, a Democrat and retired Superior Court Judge, said he would like to see the legislature approve more money for the Highway Patrol and for the courts.
“If we’re ever going to do it, now’s the time,” he said, speaking of a projected surplus in the state budget.
A recent budget forecast shows that the state is expected to receive $6.5 billion more in tax revenue than expected over the next two years.
“The old nursery rhyme tells you that when the cat’s away, the mouse will play,” Fitch said, adding: “When you look at the miles we have in North Carolina, a lot of roads don’t get patrolled.”
State Sen. Danny Britt, a Robeson County Republican and influential lawmaker in Raleigh, said he is in favor of allocating more money for enforcement and the courts, but only if it doesn’t come from increased taxes.
“Increasing court costs and fines is the only way to get there,” said Britt, a practicing defense attorney who co-chairs the House judiciary committee as well as its justice and public safety appropriations committee.
Clipping the wings of ‘frequent flyers’
The newspapers’ investigation also revealed that some super speeders are caught doing it again and again. From 2016 through 2020, roughly 16,000 people have been charged at least three times with extreme speeding — that is, driving 20 mph or more over the limit.
State DOT traffic engineer Kevin Lacy, who oversees a division in charge of road design and measures to improve highway safety, said an ongoing study by the UNC Highway Safety Research Center is examining a key question: Are people who are frequently arrested for speeding more likely to wind up in crashes?
If the answer turns out to be yes, as Lacy suspects, “maybe we have targeted laws that focus on the people who exhibit these repeated behaviors.”
Rep. Joe John, proposed one solution: If a driver is charged with going more than 15 mph over the limit or over 80 mph — or if the driver is charged with reckless driving - the state could require a formal sentencing proceeding. In those cases, the prosecutor could be required to make the court aware of the defendant’s prior driving history.
“I think most judges are fairly responsible across the board and when they see egregious cases, I don’t think many judges are going to be disposed to being particularly lenient,” said John, a former N.C. Court of Appeals judge and North Carolina DMV deputy commissioner. “If they see these horrendous driving records, they’ll think twice.”
‘A very high cost’
Not everyone favors new laws.
“I don’t think a real strict stance on speeding is going to curtail driver behavior,” said Britt, who in addition to being a defense attorney is a former prosecutor.
Others question whether legislators are taking the issue seriously enough.
“We just can’t have these fatalities while we’re sitting around helpless,” said Charlotte City Council member Greg Phipps. “I don’t know if (lawmakers) appreciate the gravity of the situation.”
But virtually everyone agrees it’s a growing problem.
Lacy, the state traffic engineer, said it’s clear that the speeding on North Carolina’s roadways has “gotten out of hand.” One example, he said, is what happens on a rural two lane road in the southeastern part of the state. The speed limit is 55, yet the DOT recently found that 15 percent of cars travel more than 80 mph.
“If you just boil it down to the dollars, (speed-related) crashes are costing our state billions of dollars a year. But look at the emotional stress and strain,” Lacy said, referring to the deaths, injuries and damage that result from high-speed driving.
Phipps, the Charlotte city council member, said public officials must act.
“We should not be waiting around for the next fatality to do something,” he said.
News & Observer staff writer Richard Stradling contributed to this reporting.
