SPEED TRAP

SPEED TRAP,

In a sleepy South Carolina coastal town, drivers whiz through the outskirts on interstate 95, an extension of Washington D.C.'s beltway, more then a hundred miles to the north. The posted speed limit is 70, but we all know that posted speed limits  don't really mean what they say, they mean 10 miles more, or in the case of I 95 near Ridgeland, S.C.  80. Ya, that's what I'm talking about.

So when Joe Blow races along the "95" like Dale Earnhardt, imagine his shock when a couple of weeks later he gets a speeding ticket for going 90 m.p.h. in a 70 m.p.h. speed zone. The ticket is complete with his license plate number, the date of the infraction, the cost of the violation and an incriminating photo of the driver.

The photo ticket has struck again, the long arm of Johnny Law, capturing another terror of the road, whacking him with a couple hundred dollar fine to be paid within 60 days of the issuance of the ticket. Once news of this new deterrent to traffic speeding gets around, the obvious happens, drivers slow down to safer legal speeds and driving along the stretch of the interstate is safer, right.....wrong, well kinda wrong.

Even though the cameras have captured thousands of Earnhardt wanna be drivers and made at least the Ridgeland area safer to drive and tickets issued have supported the camera, heated opposition from state lawmakers and has sparked federal court challenges. "What the hell you say," read on my faithful reader.

Some S.C. lawmakers want to unplug the speed grabbing device, siting that the system is just a "money grubbing" piece of equipment and is in fact unconstitutional selective law enforcement. One state Senator commented that "we're absolutely shutting it down." As one caught speeder remarked, "I don't think it's right, if you get stopped by an officer, know you have been stopped and have an opportunity to state your case."

Makes perfect sense to me, I can just hear this guy right now, "jeez officer, I have a date, am late and needed to go 85 in a 70." Or the one I've used over and over, "sorry officer, but I gotta go, you know, pee, I promise if you let me off, I'll never speed again and I'll pee before I leave the house, I PROMISE. The guy that was issued the ticket paid the fine, saying it was less expensive then driving six hours back to the Ridgeland traffic court, plus he was worried about another ticket.

This speed trip, "come on, lets call it what it really is," is practiced in 14 states as well as the District of Columbia at the present time. Statistics back up law enforcement use of the camera system, citing lower accident rates and in several cases, fewer issued speeding tickets because of the action.

Critics talk about issuing tickets by a traffic cop in person, as opposed to mailing them. There is also the question of selective enforcement and the system being (unfair) to the offending driver. It like a bank robber complaining about surveillance cameras in a bank and how they, (cameras) are making it tougher for the guy to do his (robbing a bank) job. Don't we have more important things to do?