State Patrol: Speeders going over 100 mph on I-494
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A Minnesota State Patrol officer on the lookout for speeding caught drivers on consecutive days zooming by at more than 100 mph.
The patrol says the trooper stopped a man in Minnetonka Thursday afternoon going 109 mph in a 60 mph zone. He caught another driver the day before on the same stretch of Interstate 494 going 103 mph.
Patrol Lt. Gordon Shank says it’s a familiar problem.
“We do see drivers that go over 100 mph. And right now speed is our number one leading factor for fatal crashes. So it's something that we do take seriously,” Shank said. “And we continue to focus on educating the public and holding those drivers accountable that do drive at those speeds.”
Minnesota has an extreme-speed law that calls for a mandatory six-month license revocation when a person is caught driving at 100 mph or more. That happens upon conviction of the offense.
The patrol and its law enforcement partners are waging an extra speed enforcement campaign in July.
The state’s Office of Traffic Safety says the 100 days between Memorial Day and Labor Day tend to be among the most deadly on the roads. In the first 25 days of that stretch, at least 46 people died in crashes, according to preliminary figures. That's the highest in 10 years for that span.
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