Indiana State Police blitz westside interstate

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana State Police troopers made 120 traffic stops and cited a majority of those drivers for speeding during a two-hour ticket-writing blitz on the west side of Indianapolis Wednesday.

More than a dozen troopers, warned by lawmen with handheld laser speed detectors, pulled over drivers exceeding the 55-mile-per-hour limits on I-465 between 56 ^th and 38 ^th streets for two hours in the afternoon.

One of those speeding motorists left the traffic stop in handcuffs arrested on an outstanding warrant while others face tickets ranging up to $200.

Sgt. John Perrine said troopers were stopping only drivers topping out at 75 MPH and above.

”We’re certainly not out here looking for the people who are minor speeding. We’re looking for the most egregious, most aggressive drivers who are really causing problems,” he said. ”We would like to lower that threshold but it’s really hard to go out and stop the people doing 10 over when we know a few seconds later there is somebody coming who is doing thirty over.”

Last year, ISP investigated 56 interstate shooting incidents on Indianapolis freeways.

So far this year, troopers have responded to 15 shootings and another 56 incidents of guns being displayed at motorists.

Perrine said excessive speed is often to blame for road rage incidents.

”We have a group of drivers who want to drive slow in the left lane and say, ‘Hey, you’re not passing me. If I’m gonna drive the speed limit, you’re gonna drive the speed limit.’ And the other side of the selfish driver is, ‘I don’t care about anybody else. I’m gonna drive the way I want as fast as I want.’ We really need to get a handle on both of those.”

Perrine said troopers from across the state will be patrolling Indianapolis area interstates through the rest of this year engaging in occasional blitzes.

ISP is girding itself for the April 8 Eclipse which is expected to attract some 200,000 people to central Indiana to watch the moon black out the sun for five minutes, distracting motorists or resulting in drivers pulling off to the side of highways to watch the phenomenon.

”We’re terrified about those dangerous conditions because think about somebody standing on the side of the road or interstate watching the eclipse and somebody driving watching the eclipse,” said Perrine. “That’s a recipe for danger and a recipe for danger.”

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