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Published on Thursday, March 6, 2003
in the Florida Times Union
Speeding tickets going fast in St. Johns construction zone
On Interstate 95 in St. Johns County, Florida Highway Patrol troopers don't have to wait long to clock drivers at speeds above the limit.
In a five-hour period yesterday, they issued 118 speeding tickets -- a rate of about one ticket every three minutes.
The crackdown, dubbed Operation Hardhat, targeted widespread speeding in the 40-mile stretch of Interstate 95 where construction is taking place from southeast Jacksonville to the St. Johns-Flagler county line.
Construction adds another complication to the traffic surge that occurs on Florida highways when the weather warms and tourist seasons heats up. Historically, March has been the month when the most accidents and fatalities occur in Florida, according to state statistics.
In St. Johns County, the Sheriff's Office and Florida Highway Patrol have been striving the past four years to reduce the number of deadly crashes. The annual death toll in St. Johns County peaked at 45 in 1999 and dropped the next two years. But last year, it rose again when 36 people died on St. Johns County roadways.
Those fatalities have taken place throughout the county, but I-95 has been an area of particular concern because the high volume of traffic poses the risk of deadly multi-vehicle crashes.
"You would think that over a longer construction area, people would tend to notice that they're in a construction zone and slow down," Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Bill Leeper said. "The reality is that most people don't slow down at all."
The Operation Hardhat enforcement uses a trooper who dresses in the garb of a construction worker. The trooper sets up speed-detection equipment on a tripod beside the highway. To oncoming drivers, the trooper looks like a construction worker doing surveying work. The Highway Patrol has used that method on Interstate 95 in north Jacksonville, where a similar highway widening project is taking place.
The enforcement yesterday was on I-95 just north of the Duval-St. Johns county line, near the site of a Feb. 20 crash involving five semitrucks. One driver was killed.
Doc Salzburg and his son, Adam, were driving their motorcycles to Bike Week in Daytona Beach when a trooper stopped them for exceeding the 55 mph limit.
The fine for speeding in Florida ranges from $43 to $268. Speeding in a construction zone when construction workers are present will double the fine.
"We were just keeping up with the rest of the traffic," Doc Salzburg said. Troopers just warned him and his son.
"All the Highway Patrol is trying to do is keep us alive," Salzburg said before climbing back on his motorcycle. "Can't complain about that."
Leeper said future Operation Hardhat enforcement will target I-95 through St. Johns County.
He said the increase in St. Johns County traffic fatalities stems from the county's population growth. As the metropolitan area expands in St. Johns County, the likelihood is that traffic crashes and fatalities will increase, he said.