Troopers Use Low Profile Tahoes To Address Spike Of Drivers Speeding Over 100 MPH

In the year 2020: 641 Arkansas deaths resulted from motor vehicle crashes

During calendar year 2020 there were 641 Arkansas deaths resulting from motor vehicle crashes, a 27% increase over the previous year. The number of highway crash deaths has already surpassed 400 this year.

Colonel Bryant testified before a General Assembly sub-committee earlier this summer that Arkansas has not escaped a national epidemic of lawlessness on the nation’s highways. He told the legislators,

“. . . law abiding Arkansas motorists are finding themselves confronted with new threats on the highways and more frequently than ever before.”

Last year Arkansas troopers stopped 2,030 drivers who were traveling at 100 miles per hour, or faster, an increase of more than 100 percent from 2019 among violators exceeding the 100 miles per hour speed.

The three digit speed violations in 2021 have already surpassed all last year with troopers issuing 2,381 tickets to violators between January – June this year for speeds between 100 – 160 miles per hour.

Cumulatively this year (*January - August) state troopers have issued 52,593 citations for various speeding and dangerous or aggressive driving type violations.

The anomaly of faster speeding violations has been compounded by a brazen spike in incidences of drivers refusing to stop when state troopers attempt to initiate traffic stops.

Over the past five years troopers in Arkansas have documented a 98 percent increase in pursuits involving drivers who choose to flee rather than pull-over for the initial violation. In the metropolitan Little Rock/Central Arkansas area pursuits are up 170 percent since 2016.

Colonel Bryant told legislators, “When a driver makes the conscious choice to flee from law enforcement they increase their speed, drive erratically, weave in and out of traffic, passing other vehicles on the highway shoulder; they’re putting innocent lives at risk for no reason other than they refuse to stop for the initial traffic violation.”

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