Crack down on I-95 speed demons | Editorial

Prudent motorists keep their auto insurance up to date. Those heading out on Interstate 95 may want to check their life insurance, too.

To learn why, read the investigative report, “Danger Road,” in today’s Sun Sentinel.

I-95, our reporters found, is Florida’s most horrible highway, where speed demons and other reckless drivers seem to know they won’t get caught -- and where some state troopers confess, they are afraid to try.

Crashes and deaths are up, enforcement is down. Florida’s government is failing miserably in its most fundamental duty: public safety.

The troopers who ought to be patrolling I-95 are often nowhere to be seen. There are fewer of them than 20 years ago. Entire shifts go by without a single trooper on the road. Per motorist on the route, fewer of them are posted to Broward than to any other county.

The death toll two years ago -- the most recent available data -- was 117, nearly half as many more than in 2014. That made it more dangerous than I-75, I-4 and Florida’s Turnpike.

Crashes are up 41% over the last five years, yet troopers have written 38% fewer tickets.

Those are some of the highlights in the deeply troubling report by our staff writers Brittany Wallman, Megan O’Matz and database editor John Maines.

We’re obviously proud of their work. But the politicians now talking about trying to fix the problem shouldn’t have needed a newspaper to find and report it.

The Legislature’s public safety and appropriations committees owe the people of South Florida an explanation, an apology and a solution. So does Gov. Ron DeSantis, who chairs the Florida Cabinet, which oversees the highway safety department.

One hopes that South Florida’s Democratic political leanings aren’t part of the explanation. Law enforcement isn’t supposed to be partisan.

Like everything else, budgeting related to roads seems to depend on who in the Legislature has the most clout in distributing what never is enough money. The Turnpike, Alligator Alley and even I-4 in Central Florida have their own dedicated FHP patrols. But not I-95.

The problem is magnified by the insistence of nearly half the sheriffs that FHP troopers patrol local as well as state roads, and write up accidents that ought to be the sheriffs' responsibility.

Every other state, our reporters found, has more state troopers per capita than Florida. California spends more than four times as much per capita even though its troopers patrol only a fourth as many miles.

It brings to mind how the late Charley Reed, chancellor of Florida’s universities for 13 years, once proposed a new state motto: “We’re cheap and we’re proud of it.”

One appalling -- and inexcusable -- consequence of being cheap is the turnover rate among state troopers. Nearly half of them quit within three years, often to take higher-paying jobs with county sheriffs who hold a trump card the FHP doesn’t. They can appeal to the governor and Cabinet if county commissions refuse their budget demands, and their appeals are rarely, if ever, turned down.

The Legislature has known about the consequence of being cheap since at least December 2007, when a Sunset review by its Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (OPPAGA) noted that 18 percent of newly hired troopers were quitting within three years. The report blamed “non-competitive salary levels.”

Florida’s sheriffs, it appears, are relying on the FHP to recruit and train their future deputies.

The state accountability office also suggested that the Legislature limit the FHP’s jurisdiction to state highways only. Florida law left that to “informal agreements” between the FHP and sheriffs, and still does.

In 2011, the Legislature established a task force to look into the FHP’s jurisdiction. It recommended against limiting the FHP’s jurisdiction, primarily because of how much burden would be shifted to county sheriffs.

But it also recommended “an equitable distribution of traffic crash investigation and patrol resources” within the FHP itself. The report said it should assign troopers based on county population and “projections of crashes for each county.” It also said the FHP should identify which roads it ought to patrol and allocate “current resources” according to the projected workload.

In so saying, it didn’t solve the sheriff problem and didn’t point out the clear need for more money. And in response, the Legislature did nothing.

Florida law hobbles the FHP in another way. Because of an infamous speed trap in the little town of Waldo, northwest of Gainesville on U.S. 301, police commanders are forbidden to establish quotas for writing traffic tickets.

But that should not be allowed to deter targeted enforcement. In other respects, it doesn’t. The FHP announced 548 arrests statewide for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs during a holiday crackdown called “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” from Dec. 12 to Jan. 2. Troopers also wrote 13,660 speeding tickets.

To do that, the FHP put off some administrative functions and used reservists and auxiliary troopers.

Chronic speeding may lack the headline appeal of drunk driving, but it’s just as dangerous. It’s time for a targeted crackdown on I-95.

Every available trooper should be called in from time to time and told to do nothing but catch speeders and ticket them.

Just having their cruisers visible on the highway would be an improvement.

That’s not a quota system. It’s simple common sense.

Editorials are the opinion of the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board and written by one of its members or a designee. The Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Rosemary O’Hara, Dan Sweeney, Steve Bousquet and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson.

___

(c)2020 the Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)

Visit the Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) at www.sun-sentinel.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.