Published on Tuesday, July 10, 2007
in the Daytona Beach News-Journal

Highway Patrol car positioned to deter speeders

Motorists racing through one of the area's most notoriously unsafe interchanges -- Interstate 4 and I-95 -- should look twice.

There in the grassy shoulder facing west as speeders fly onto the northbound ramp to I-95 is a Florida Highway Patrol cruiser strategically parked to deter those with a lead foot, said Trooper Kim Miller, Florida Highway Patrol spokeswoman.

"The thing is you will never know when the cruiser is empty or when a trooper is inside of it," Miller said Monday. "Do you really want to take the chance?"

Miller said the agency placed the patrol cruiser at the intersection on June 30 because it is one of the most dangerous in the area.

"People whip through that intersection to get onto 95," she said. "We've had several crashes there. We had a trooper struck there."

The patrol cruiser will be moved eventually and placed at another intersection soon, Miller said, but FHP officials are not tipping their hands about when or where it will be moved.

"Once we move it, it will be followed up with enforcement," Miller said. "That means we'll then have a trooper in that area."