Highway Patrol: Speeding becoming all too common during pandemic

ST. LOUIS -- The Missouri State Highway Patrol is reporting a dangerous trend on roads and highways left wide open by the shutdown tied to the coronavirus outbreak: People speeding at extraordinarily fast levels.

Patrol officials told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch at least once a day during the outbreak, motorists are being caught traveling faster than 100 mph. Troopers are hearing excuses ranging from "There's no traffic" to "I'm not hurting anyone."

Authorities say triple-digit speeding normally leads to an arrest and a trip to jail. But fear about spreading the virus in jail means the highway patrol isn't arresting even the worst of the speeding offenders. Instead, they are given a summons to appear in court.

The patrol says the top speed troopers have seen during the outbreak was someone traveling at 145 mph April 17 in Ray County. Another motorist was caught going 143 mph April 14 in Pettis County, and a Mustang reached 121 mph April 17 in Newton County.