CHP cracking down on speeding with 24-hour statewide ‘Maximum Enforcement Period’

The California Highway Patrol will begin its 24-hour “Maximum Enforcement Period” (MEP) on Tuesday morning as officers target speeding drivers throughout the state.

The MEP begins Tuesday at 6 a.m. and lasts until Wednesday morning.

Some drivers tell Eyewitness News they can’t afford speeding tickets because of gas prices.

“We’re definitely employing methods to go ahead and conserve on gas,” Paula, a motorist, said. “I’ve never been pulled over, so I don’t know what a big, fat speeding ticket looks like… maybe, like two miles back, they were already pulling over people.”

“I don’t want a ticket,” Cleve McWright, another motorist, said. “I don’t even want to deal with Highway Patrol, so I try to stay, you know, under the speed limit.”

Speeding continues to be a dangerous and deadly problem throughout California. Some motorists said they see drivers acting like the highways are more like a NASCAR racetrack.

“It’s pretty bad. Yeah, it sure is, you know. I mean, on the highways and even on the surface streets,” McWright said.

Last year, CHP officers issued more than 491,000 speeding tickets statewide. Preliminary data showed speeding contributed to more than 110,000 crashes, killing over 400 people and injuring 68,000.

“I think always people need to slow down,” Paula said.

“Speeding continues to be one of the leading causes of serious and fatal crashes on California’s roadways,” CHP commissioner Sean Duryee said in a statement. “When drivers choose to exceed safe speeds, they reduce their ability to react and increase the risk for everyone on the road. Slowing down is one of the simplest steps that drivers can take to protect themselves and others.”

The crackdown comes as the CHP’s new program with the DMV called Forwarded Actions for Speeding Tickets (FAST) was introduced last year in December. It’s designed to quickly flag drivers caught going more than 100 mph.

Those cases are automatically sent to the DMV, where driver’s licenses can be suspended or revoked.