Imagine you are driving down the highway at the speed limit and a car comes from out of nowhere behind you, whizzing past you at a high rate of speed.
Kevin Miller doesn’t have to imagine that. Before he became the Republican state representative from Newark, he was a trooper with the Ohio State Highway Patrol. And he said he’s seen what often happens as a result of excessive speed on a roadway.
“Certainly, when you have excessive speed, the higher the speed gets, the higher the incident or the likelihood of serious injury and or death so that’s why so important to address this type of behavior,” Miller said.
Miller is sponsoring House Bill 111 to crack down on excessive speed.
“This is not your mom and pop who had a little lead in the foot and are getting a speeding ticket,” Miller said. “These are the most egregious speeding offenses.”
Miller explained excessive speed makes it dangerous for drivers who are doing perfectly legal things – like changing lanes.
“You see a vehicle at a distance of what you would know typically as being far enough back that you are going to change lanes,” Miller said. “If that person is doing triple digits, their approach is a whole lot faster than what you think and reaction times are different, braking times are different.”
Miller said of all of the speeding citations issued by the Ohio State Highway Patrol, this bill would only affect the top 4%. He said this bill would affect levy the significant fines when drivers are going 30 miles per hour over the limit. Under Miller’s bill, $200 would be added to speeding tickets if the driver was going 30 miles or more over the limit.
HB 111 has bipartisan support and was introduced in February. It was assigned to the House Public Safety Committee but has not yet had a hearing.
