Here’s an interesting number: 2,972.
That is the number of warning citations issued by the Webster City Police Department during the 30-day grace period for just one lane of traffic passing through Webster City on U.S. Highway 20, according to the new traffic camera system that went into operation in October.
In that one lane — the eastbound lane — 174,865 vehicles passed through, the fastest of them traveling at 109 mph, according to Webster City Police Chief Shiloh Mork.
To rate a citation, the vehicle had to be exceeding the 65 mph speed limit by at least 11 mph.
In the westbound lane, 2,411 citations were issued; traffic in that lane — 160,177 vehicles — topped 113 mph in speed, Mork said.
“Webster City’s new speed cameras are now enforcing violations following a 30-day warning period that ended on Nov. 16,” Mork said in a media release. “Owners of violating vehicles captured traveling 11 or more miles per hour over the speed limit will be receiving a ticket in the mail. …
“During the warning period, over 425,000 vehicles were monitored and 7,015 warning notices were issued including four violations in excess of 100 mph. The violation rate during the warning period was over 1,650 per 100,000 vehicles.”
On Iowa Highway 17 — or Briggs Woods Road — where the speed limit is 55 mph, 1,433 warning citations were issued to southbound drivers during the same 30 days. That is out of a total of 54,326 drivers, Mork said. The fastest speed clocked southbound was 109 mph.
Northbound on the same two-lane road, 199 warning citations were issued out of 43,652 drivers, at least one speeding up to 101 mph.
“For more than two decades, speeding has been involved in approximately one-third of all motor vehicle fatalities,” Mork said. “In 2021, speeding was a contributing factor in 29% of all traffic fatalities, according to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration website.”
The camera footage that is collected by the new automatic traffic devices is monitored by the Webster City Police Department.
View this article as it originally appeared in the Daily Freeman-Journal.
Last modified: November 22, 2023