Police ramp up efforts to stop aggressive driving by writing more speeding tickets

BLUE MOUNDS, Wis. — Police across Wisconsin have ramped up efforts to stop aggressive driving by writing more speeding tickets.

The Wisconsin State Journal reports that the strategy is appearing to work, as citations increased nearly 7 percent to more than 172,000 in 2015. Before then, speeding convictions had dropped 34.5 percent in eight years to just more than 161,000 in 2014.

The newspaper analyzed about 450,000 speeding convictions from 2013 to 2015. During that period, nearly 1,600 motorists were convicted of driving at least 100 mph on Wisconsin roads. Some of them were stopped in speed zones as low as 30 mph.

Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney said speeding drivers have a lot in common with drunken and distracted drivers in how they drive and create many similar road dangers.