Lead-Footed Bay Area Drivers: CHP Tickets 1,704 Drivers For Speeding Over 100 MPH In 2019
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Citing a stunning increase of speeding drivers on San Francisco Bay Area freeways, the California Highway Patrol revealed Wednesday that their officers had ticketed 1,704 drivers in 2019 for driving faster than 100 mph.
The CHP's Golden Gate office took to social media to make the public aware of the growing problem.
Last February, a CHP officer from the Hayward office issued a driver a citation for going 133 mph on normally crowded I-880 corridor in the East Bay. In that case, the CHP said, the driver was also arrested for driving under the influence.
Meanwhile, officers from the CHP's Contra Costa office have reported to their superiors that they also have seen an increase in the number of speeders travelling over 100 mph on Highway 4.
A CHP motorcycle officer in Oakland also recently conducted back-to-back enforcement stops on two separate vehicles. The first one was travelling 101 mph and the second one was travelling 111 mph.
**Carjacking Suspects Arrested** This morning CHP Airplane Air-31 assisted the Oakland Police Department in locating a vehicle that was taken in a carjacking yesterday. The suspects in the carjacking were reported to be armed with a handgun. Air-31 located the vehicle as it drove slowly through residential streets of Alamo and Walnut Creek. The suspect vehicle then traveled I-680 north, Highway 24 (w/b) to Sr-13 south, then through various streets of Oakland before parking the suspect vehicle. Air-31 followed the suspects as they entered a market in Oakland. The Oakland Police responded and arrested all four occupants of the vehicle. No CHP ground units were involved in this incident due to the suspects fleeing in a reckless manner and a CHP Airplane was following from above. The Oakland Police are investigating this incident. (The video is a brief snapshot of the incident.)
Posted by CHP - Golden Gate Division Air Operations on Tuesday, March 3, 2020
In 2018, the CHP said, its Bay Area officers issued 1,613 citations for driving in excess of 100 mph. In 2017, that number was 1,333 citations and 1,270 were issued in 2016.
"Whenever you combine a vehicle that weighs thousands of pounds with a high rate of speed, it is only a matter of time before something tragic happens," the CHP said in the post. "Speeding is the number one cause for traffic collisions that CHP officers investigated in the San Francisco Bay Area. Of the 38,684 traffic collisions our officers investigated, 18,069 were found to have involved speed."