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Officers say more motorists are in a rush and driving aggressively, increasing the number of traffic citations.
By MICHAEL SANDLER
© St. Petersburg Times, published December 25, 2000
TAMPA -- With the speedometer at 65, Dottie Buckingham was driving peacefully along Interstate 75 when she suddenly felt jolted by her surroundings.
The Tampa Palms mother has logged extensive miles throughout Hillsborough County during the past nine years, carting two teenage sons to school and basketball practice. She knows this road.
"People were zipping by me on both sides," said Buckingham, 54. "I remember thinking, am I on the autobahn?"
With more people competing for less space, the tone on Tampa Bay area highways has reached a level that compares to that infamous German expressway, where high speeds and aggressive driving are commonplace.
"Some people just feel like the speed limit is too low," said Antonio Whitty, 25, a University of South Florida senior. "And the cars go faster. In this society, people are going to do what they want to do."
Whether you ask a police officer or a college student, most agree that drivers seem rushed to get places faster. Some attribute it to more crowded roads. Others blame technology, coming in the form of high-performance vehicles and an Internet culture that demands instant gratification. Every year, the holiday rush takes some of the blame.
Whatever the reason, when lights turn green, drivers stomp their pedals and push the pace. They weave, cut around and accelerate to gain mere seconds. At the same time, many talk on mobile phones, switch compact discs or grope blindly for one last french fry.
"It seems like there are more people in a hurry to get places these days," said Officer Mike Baumaister of the Tampa Police Department. "They are sitting at a light for three minutes, and when it turns green, they try to make up the time they lost."
Experts, including law enforcement officers who are combating the problem with high-technology measures, say aggressive driving can include tailgating, speeding, erratic lane changes or provocative hand gestures.
"If you have a semi-truck tailing a Pinto, that's aggressive driving," said Tampa police Sgt. Alan Draffin.
In extreme cases, belligerent drivers engage each other in high-speed chases and force one another off the road. In some cases, they draw guns and shoot.
In August, Tampa police accused Robert Bruno of shooting Fernando Malagon to death shortly after Malagon cut Bruno off. Witnesses say Bruno chased him 5 miles before they pulled over on Memorial Highway, Bruno then got out of his car, walked alongside and shot Malagon dead through the glass, according to police. Philippe Leguichard pleaded guilty to attempted murder and aggravated assault charges in October and began serving a 10-year sentence in state prison for a 1999 road rage incident. The 46-year-old Tarpon Springs man shot a semiautomatic handgun at two cars. Late for work and speeding to Tampa on the Courtney Campbell Parkway, he became enraged by slower cars blocking his drive.
A jury acquitted three Tarpon Springs men in March on charges from a 1999 traffic dispute that escalated and left two Tampa men with cracked skulls caused by blows from shovels. The injured men said the attack was unprovoked. The defendants told jurors they lashed out in self-defense.
"You get people who are cool, calm and collected, (but) as soon as they get behind the wheel of a motor vehicle, their personality changes," said Cpl. Alan Hill of the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.
Although aggressive driving is hard to measure, statistics show it is common and, in some areas, on the rise:
Citations issued in Hillsborough for moving violations increased by 11 percent during the past five years (from about 90,000 in 1995 to 100,000 in 1999); speeding in a posted zone amounted to nearly all of the additional violations, increasing from 21,647 to 30,274). On Bruce B. Downs Boulevard alone, the Hillsborough Sheriff's Office doubled the number of citations from 1996 to 2000, from 530 to 1,027.
In Pinellas County, officers issued more than 32,000 citations for speeding in a posted zone in 1999. Pasco County issued 9,139.
St. Petersburg police conduct speeding crackdowns in various spots around the city, often writing more than 100 tickets in a day. Many tickets are for speeding 10 to 14 mph over the limit; those cost $120.
"The whole idea is for us to be out there and be visible, to get drivers to slow down," says St. Petersburg traffic Lt. Tom Carey.
According to a 1997 random telephone survey of 6,000 people conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, two-thirds of drivers surveyed said they exceed the maximum safe speed.
"People ride your tail, and continue to ride your tail even if you are doing the speed limit, to the point where they almost hit you," said Meghan McGinn, 21, a University of South Florida student who lives near campus and commutes to a job at a doctor's office in New Tampa. On weekends, she drives to her parents' home in St. Petersburg.
Like most people interviewed, she admitted she often goes a few miles per hour over the speed limit.
"If I am doing the speed limit, I'll get out of the way," she said. "But if I'm speeding myself, and they want to go faster, they are going to have to go around. In my opinion, that's too fast and they are going to have to slow down."
When pulled over, drivers come up with all kinds of reasons for speeding: late for work, late for school, had to go to the bathroom.
Generally, they politely admit to it. That's what Officer Baumaister encountered at 8:30 a.m. on Dec. 6 before writing his first ticket of the day along Bruce B. Downs Boulevard. "He told me, "Yeah, I'm going to work and probably going a little too fast,' " Baumaister said. "That's fine, we all make mistakes. He was honest, which is good."
Baumaister, a patrol officer in New Tampa, joined the department's traffic squad that day for special enforcement. The department has added a second traffic squad this year, raising the number of officers from 12 to 24. Tampa police have joined a coalition with the Florida Highway Patrol and the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, which has added community relations officers to speak with schools, businesses and civic organizations about aggressive driving.
Once a month, officers and deputies target problem areas in an attempt to slow speeding.
"It's a rat race world," said Officer Pat Ferguson, who says violators come in all shapes and sizes. "There's a middle-aged, white female doing 68 while talking on a cell phone," he said, clicking the laser. "That's way too fast for a 45 (mph) zone. 68 on cell phone? That's another issue in itself."
Just what is too fast? Each of the three dozen motorists who were interviewed for this story had a slightly different definition of what it means to speed.
"Honestly, I drive a little bit above the speed limit," said Antonio Whitty, a business major who believes 45 mph is too low for roads like Bruce B. Downs. "Fifty-five would be nice," he said. "It's not like people have houses directly on it, so I don't feel like it is a threat. When you get to commercial areas, I feel like it should be at least 55."