Busted going 100 miles per hour or more? Where you get stopped plays a big role in your punishment
After WRAL Investigates reported on an increase in excessive speed and highway deaths, we continued to hear complaints about reckless speeders getting away with it. So we went to court and dug into the data to see for ourselves.
In one week in Wake County, we found 69 drivers in court charged with driving at speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour. Most were also charged with reckless driving because of excessive speed.
Courtney Strope was one of those drivers who faced the judge. In fact, she was there to handle two tickets — going 120 mph in a 70 mph zone and going 95 mph in a 70 mph zone. Her exchange with the judge was interesting and, honestly, funny:
Judge: She was going 120 miles an hour in a 70 mile an hour zone?
Attorney: It was on a legal highway, your honor.
Judge: It wasn’t any kind of willful speed competition?
Attorney: No, your honor.
Judge: Where was she going in such a hurry?
Strope: Nowhere
Judge: What kind of car was it?
Strope: A Camaro.
Judge: Well, just because it goes that fast doesn’t mean you to drive it that fast.
Strope: I understand that.
Judge: It’s not the car’s fault.
After court, Strope told WRAL Investigates that she had no excuse and that she just likes going fast. She pleaded guilty to reckless driving, completed driving school and lost her license. In exchange, prosecutors dropped charges linked to one of her tickets.
Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman’s office handles more than 100,000 traffic court cases a year. She says drivers charged with going 100+ miles per hour are treated differently.
"Our policy that we ask our district attorneys to apply is not to reduce those. Those people need to lose their license," Freeman said.
WRAL Investigates found that doesn’t appear to be the case for most of the state. Court data from 2020-21 shows only 20% of reckless driving charges end up with a conviction or are transferred to Superior Court, where conviction rates are higher. The rest get tossed or reduced.
Wake County’s conviction rate is nearly double the state average, which is 39%. Durham County has the highest rate in central North Carolina at 58%. In one prosecutorial district, WRAL Investigates found that almost every reckless driving case was reduced or dismissed. Wilson and Edgecombe counties both have conviction rates under 2%. Neighboring Nash County is at 4%.
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"attrs": {
"id": "19869040",
"identifier": "speeding",
"description": "County-county percentage of reckless driving charges that result in a guilty verdict, guilty plea or are transferred to Superior Court.",
"credits": "Data from the North Carolina court system for the 2020-21 fiscal year.",
"header": "FOUND GUILTY OF RECKLESS DRIVING"
},
"children": null
}Those statistics frustrate Nash County Sheriff Keith Stone. "You know when you can pay a couple hundred dollars to an attorney and it will go away over and over again, people get to where they understand that ‘Hey, I’ve got a bad action here and there’s no ramification for it.’"
Driving on U.S. Highway 64, within minutes Stone spotted speeders. "There’s your 94 right there," he said when pointing out a vehicle heading in the opposite direction. "And it’s all day long," added Stone about the high speeds.
The sheriff acknowledges that enforcement matters. The pandemic continues to have an impact on traffic stops.
WRAL Investigates compared the most recent statewide traffic stop data for speeders from January through August of this year to the two previous years.
In 2019, there were 372,663 stops.
In 2020, 272,210 stops.
Thus far in 2021, 272,010 stops.
Stone cites staff shortages in some agencies and a lower priority for stops during the pandemic. He says the waning public support for law enforcement is part of the issue too. "If the community stands up and says we want more sincere law enforcement, they’ll get more sincere law enforcement," he said.
"When an officer goes to work and he understands that I’m going to be chastised for anything I do, I’m sure a young officer says ‘Why am I going to put up with this?’" adds Stone about the difficulties faced by officers in today’s climate.
It’s proven that excessive speeds have deadly consequences. Last year in North Carolina, crashes were down because of the reduced congestion. However, traffic fatalities were up. Experts say high speed was to blame.
But as WRAL Investigates found, consequences on the road and in court vary depending on where speeders get caught.
