If you have a lead foot, you might want to ease up on the gas pedal on Interstate 5 and other highways in Clark County, because there’s a stricter mood in the air.
Don’t believe it?
Ask the 5,835 speeders that two recently-honored Washington State Patrol troopers, Marcus Hoggatt and Mike Johnson, used their motorcycles to pull over in Clark County last year.
Johnson stopped an average of 34 violators per shift, the highest average of any motorcycle trooper in the state.
And he and Hoggatt aren’t known for saying things like, “Well, I won’t write you up this time. Just take it easy, OK?”
Johnson issued tickets in 95 percent of his stops last year. Hoggatt wrote citations to 92.3 percent of his drivers, officials said Thursday.
With troopers being asked to keep driving the traffic fatality numbers down, toward their Target Zero goal of none in Washington by 2030, those friendly warnings more and more are becoming a thing of the past with the state patrol.
Around 2006, WSP Chief John R. Batiste asked troopers to take speeding more seriously. A year later, motorists were getting tickets in about 60 to 65 percent of stops, up from about 44 percent previously, according to Columbian files.
Troopers still have discretion about giving warnings vs. tickets, but their thinking changed after Batiste’s order. Were they really being nice guys when they issued only a warning? Or were they encouraging more speeding and more crashes?
On Wednesday, Hoggatt and Johnson were honored as outstanding troopers by the Washington Traffic Safety Commission during a statewide awards ceremony in Lacey.
Hoggatt pulled over 2,730 speeders in Clark County last year, officials said in a bulletin, and 2,520 of those drivers received tickets. Last November and December he focused on impaired drivers and arrested 34.
As for Johnson, he stopped 3,105 speeders and issued 2,950 citations.
“Trooper Johnson often speaks to community groups and teens to emphasize the importance of driver and motorcycle safety,” Mark Medalen, speaking for the traffic safety commission, said in the bulletin.
It’s well known that the number of traffic fatalities has been falling year to year, and public safety officials say it’s due to several factors including traffic-law enforcement, safety education, safer roads and cars, and better emergency medical services for injured motorists when crashes do occur.
This year’s traffic-safety awards went to police and “business leaders, engineers, citizen activists, traffic safety volunteers, educators, government leaders and media professionals,” the bulletin said.
John Branton: 360-735-4513 or john.branton@columbian.com.
