Turnpike draws fastest speeders

TOLEDO (AP) — Nearly one out of every five drivers Ohio state troopers ticketed last year for exceeding the speed limit by 20 mph or more was caught on the Ohio Turnpike, according to new figures the State Highway Patrol released this week.

Troopers who patrol the toll road across northern Ohio say it’s difficult to pinpoint a reason why there are so many speeders on the route that runs through Toledo, suburban Cleveland and near Youngstown. They cite unsafe speed as one of the leading causes of crashes on the turnpike.

Most of the turnpike is three lanes wide in each direction and runs through flat, open land with a 65 mph speed limit.

“People do have a tendency to drive fairly fast,” said Lt. John Maxey, commander of the patrol’s Milan post, which covers an 80-mile stretch of the turnpike. “People feel very comfortable on there.”

Drivers in Erie, Sandusky and Lorain counties along with Summit County in Northeast Ohio each had more than 2,000 citations last year for exceeding the speed limit by at least 20 mph, which authorities consider a dangerous form of aggressive driving. Most of them were on the turnpike, troopers said.

Although fines vary in each county, a speeding ticket combined with court costs can easily cost a driver well over $100.

Hamilton County, which includes Cincinnati, led the state in aggressive driving tickets with 4,797. Other counties with at least 2,000 citations each included Montgomery, Franklin and Stark.

Throughout the state, the patrol wrote 74,507 speeding tickets to drivers going at least 20 mph over the speed limit last year.

Saturdays and Sundays were the busiest days for catching speeders, while midmornings and late afternoons were peak times during the day, the patrol said.

Not surprisingly, rural counties in Ohio where there are no interstate highways had the lowest number of aggressive drivers. Morgan County in southeast Ohio had just 30 citations.