The number of citations written this year for speedy drivers traveling at 100 mph or more by state troopers is creeping along the state’s record levels of 2020, and showing no signs of slowing down.
As of Thursday, 429 tickets for drivers going 100 mph or higher had been written by troopers this year. Compared with the same timeframe, that’s 54 more than last year and just 13 shy of 2020 — the state’s highest year on record for total tickets issued for drivers speeding at 100 mph or more.
“We’re trending ahead of where we were the last couple of years,” State Patrol spokesman Cody Thomas said, “and almost on par with where we were during the pandemic year of 2020.”
Although not a huge shift from the past few years, the excessive speeding is part of an ongoing trend that took root in 2020 — when the number of people traveling declined sharply, opening up the highways for drivers to go well above the speed limit.
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“It’s been concerning that since (2020) we haven’t seen the excessive speeding numbers go back down to where they were before the pandemic,” Thomas said. “They stayed up significantly above that previous five-year average we have from 2015-2019.”
The highest recorded speed so far this year is 131 mph, and reasons — or excuses — for traveling at such high speeds aren’t all that surprising.
“Late for work, didn’t think they’d get caught … it runs the gamut,” Sgt. Drew Ferguson said.
Ferguson also mentioned that when stopped for excessive speeding, drivers often admit to speeding but will only admit to speeding about 5 mph over the limit.
But traveling at 100 mph or more isn’t only an issue on highways, nor is it only a speeding issue.
Last year, Nebraska saw an increase in fatalities in speeding-related crashes, and the majority of that increase took place on local roadways, according to Thomas.
“Whether that’s Lincoln or Omaha or some of the smaller communities, just the residential streets, we’re seeing speeds that are ... well above where we would like to see those and well above the speed limit,” he said. “And that may have been a factor in some of the increase in fatalities we had across the state of Nebraska last year.”
To avoid speeding, Thomas encouraged motorists to look at safe driving as a “team sport.”
“We want the people who are driving safely to be coupled with other people to start driving safely,” he said. “Because one excessive speeder going well above the speed limit can cause issues for the people who are driving safely. It changes reaction times — not just for you, the speeder — but for everyone else on the road, too.”