KELO-TV maps by county the South Dakota Highway Patrol’s 477 tickets issued to drivers caught blasting along at 100 mph or more so far this year:
Here’s Newton’s list of the 15 counties posting double-digit arrests for triple-digit speeds so far this year. all of these counties host stretches of I-90 or I-29:
- Union – 63
- Davison – 44
- Pennington – 36
- Minnehaha – 32
- Meade – 24
- Jackson – 23
- Lyman – 23
- Codington – 21
- Brule – 21
- Lincoln – 20
- Lawrence – 19
- Moody – 19
- Brookings – 18
- Jones – 18
- Hanson – 16
Of course, these Highway Patrol ticket counts don’t mean that there are actually more people super-speeding around North Sioux City than there are around Sioux Falls or Rapid City; nor do they mean that people aren’t doing over a hundred as they cross the 100th meridian on U.S. 12, 14, or 18. It just means the HP isn’t out looking on those lonely roads as much as it is along the Interstates.
Darn-this looks a lot like a “mandate” to do as one is told by government in this RED state! Or else!
And yet, the Repubs seem to love thumbing their nose at OSHA requiring shots in arm-keeping everyone safer,,,,!
I’ve done a lot of long-distance driving across SD on my way to and from states “out there” over the past 7 years. I try to stay of the highly pressurized Interstate system and take State highways as much as possible. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen an HP patrol car on those State roads. County Sheriff is the more likely enforcement group to be seen, and very few of those as well. There are the occasional city/town officer car speed traps on the outskirts of various towns – but that is an expected scenario.
And if you receive multiple speeding tickets (for any overage) it still won’t cost you your license. Right kristi? Right jason?
100-MPH? Must be nice to be immortal. If you hit a deer (or, say, merely a pedestrian) doing a decade the only thing identifiable might be the engine block.
I used to take a friend up to Ft. Meade now and then, and the 80-mph was sh*t-stormy enough for me.
Nanny-statism ain’t just a river in South Dakota.
If your legislature had any moral center at all (it doesn’t) cannabis would have been legal decades ago and insurance companies would have been compelled to cancel coverage for excessive speeding.
Maybe speeding over 85mph should be a Class 6 Felony that includes automatic permanent vehicle forfeiture (like burglary tools – the fruit of a crime).
We all pay for this malfeasance. The numbers go into insurance company databases generalized for regions, states, and bingo, ones rates receive “local adjustments” every bit as much as those rates are increased commensurate with the state’s high DUI rate. Do not think that you are immune because you don’t behave these ways or were not caught.
Richard has it down, you soon learn those speed trap towns too, you can look them up speedtrap.org. I guess all those hundred milers have lead instead steel toes in their boots.
It’s a requirement for a certain type of Republican woman in the sisterhood of speed, Kristi Noem of course, and in Florida it was Katherine Harris. They look like sisters too. Luckily we have more people and the pubs didn’t allow Ms. Harris to become anything other than Secretary of State. She did like art as I’ve said before, she breezed by me and parked in my spot when she took adult classes at Ringling. Maybe Noem would like pottery?
John, I dunno what to tell you. I’ve had three automotive-related tickets my whole life. A jaywalking ticket on the Auraria campus in Denver in 1977. A speeding ticket for doing 78-mph in a 75-mph zone in the right lane of I-25 in Platte County, Wyoming, in 1994. And parking facing the “wrong way” on a residential cul-de-sac in Denver, CO, in 1997. These three mortal sin tickets cost more than $300.
I did not know or blow enough traffic officials to make these fines disappear.
How many traffic officials did you blow, Ms. Fairbank, that it was not enough?
What’s that, John? We aren’t immune to the bad behavior of others? Our actions have consequences beyond ourselves, and thus we have a compelling interest as a community in regulating individual behavior? Novel concept.
She’s not as good as you grudz.
Well…driving down a South Dakota highway at 80 to 100 miles per hour is what our besotted Governor calls a “South Dakota Value” The fact that a person can acquire 20 or 30 speeding tickets and suffer no long term consequence (like a license suspension) is another “South Dakota Value”. Being a full time traffic law scoff law is a South Dakota Value not even the breakfast at the cafe on main street in Pollock can top.
Bonnie, can you send an image of that ticket. Or a receipt? Can you confirm the name and date and badge number of the LEO ‘s involved? That blowing thing seems really creepy and unsettling in my mind
It seems you are comfortable in that position.
Mark, Google maps alerts one to known speed traps in real time as you approach them now-a-days. I don’t take the back roads to speed, but to avoid the speeders and the heavier traffic – the pressure to “go fast” on the Interstate. I like to look around as I drive, and to stop and look a little longer, or have a sandwich in a small town cafe’ if i like. I typically don’t drive to a tight deadline and typically don’t do more to 4 or 5 mph over the limit. Mileage is a lot better that way too.
By and of itself 100+ mph in a modern well-maintained car with speed rated tires is not that big of a deal. But it rapidly is a HUGE safety deal when the rest of society is not forewarned of ‘unlimited’ speed, likely does not have high speed rated tires, has no training on high speed operations and no expectations of high speed operations (rates of closure, braking distances, harsh keep right laws, etc.), and road congestion reduces reaction times to intolerable levels. For those latter reasons, South Dakota should cap speeding over 85 mph with a Class 6 Felony and automatic vehicle forfeiture. In my rural autobahn days I spent hours over 20 months commuting at over 120 mph in good weather, good visibility, and in a well maintained Accord. I passed many and was sometimes passed. My 4 cylinders topped out at 124mph. Since South Dakota lacks road and automotive maintenance standards, expectations, ‘keep right’, and training supporting high speeds – South Dakota must cap high speeds with a strict penalty.
I support the 85mph speed limit. I could support a higher divided highway speed limit if accompanied with firm vehicle and operator safety and equipment standards, and electronic monitoring and speed adjustments in congested areas — which isn’t about to occur in this rural region more focused on faux freedom than community responsibility. I’d love to cross the 400+ miles of this state in 4 hours . . . but that’s not about to occur, unfortunately. Time is money, especially when one has no air or rail transport options.
John, 100+ mph speed by and of itself would work much better if the cars were driving themselves instead of having emotional, hormonal biological drivers. Robots have better reaction times and can be programmed to consistently observe high-speed precautions and operate within the parameters of changing road and equipment conditions.
ICJ–Gracious, no, I don’t have any of those citations from decades ago. Imagine getting a jaywalking ticket on campus. Cursed and paid ’em. Although I clearly remember the ticket I received in Platte County, WY. I was just south of Wheatland on I-25 and the world’s youngest State Trooper pulled me over for going 78 in a 75. I, alas, had Colorado plates and the natives were passing me like I was standing still. I just kept my trap shut other than the occasional yessir and nosir.
Didn’t see Grudz’s comment until just now; I sure walked into that stinker. Doesn’t make me at all happy, but I shall continue to ignore him for the continued civility of the DFP.
Ms Fairbanks comment is an old saying applicable to just about any situation. It wasn’t a personal admission. The saying goes, it is not who you know, it is who you blow. I use it more in reference to lawbreakers with higher connections getting favorable treatment.
Grudzilla has been around imaginary goats too long and is acting like one.
Thank you, mike from iowa, for those kind words. I’ve been kinda busy cutting up firewood to heat my house this winter. Although I declared I would be civil, I might type something snarky to grudz. About goats. Bonnie