Speed kills; courts shrug

SOUTHPORT -- Nancy Moseley has always had a heavy foot. Eventually, she killed with it.

Moseley, 44, had been caught driving too fast eight times since 2001. But every time, her lawyer cut a deal to preserve her right to drive.

It took killing Joe Williams, a 76-year-old retiree, in a head-on collision to get her off the road. Last summer, Moseley slammed into Williams' pickup at 60 mph, 15 over the speed limit.

Speed-related accidents kill about 10 people a week in North Carolina, according to the UNC Highway Safety Research Center. That's far more than are killed in accidents involving alcohol. But while state legislators and court officials have gotten tough on drunken drivers, they have eased up on speeders.

Legislators have created major loopholes in laws designed to slow drivers down. Traffic courts are so crowded that district attorneys and judges have thrown up their hands, a News & Observer investigation shows. They are letting almost 80 percent of speeding defendants -- well over half a million a year -- get off easy.

Most speeders are not convicted as charged, especially those ticketed at high speeds; in the most recent fiscal year, only 2.4 percent of those accused of driving above 55 mph and more than 15 miles over the limit were convicted as charged. The overwhelming majority saved their driver's licenses and avoided any increase in their insurance rates.

Loopholes aren't merely free passes to drive fast. They drive up the cost of auto insurance for everyone else, and they keep unsafe drivers on the road.

Interstate 40 and new highways in Wake County -- Interstate 540 and the U.S. 64/264 Knightdale bypass -- have been turned into racetracks, says District Attorney Colon Willoughby. He says judges have given big breaks to drivers, including teenagers, caught cruising at 100 mph or more.

"They go so fast the light poles look like a pair of corduroy breeches," Willoughby said. "I mean, they just -- shoooeee."

Speeds are increasing, according to the state Highway Patrol commander, Col. W. Fletcher Clay. He said troopers are encountering more cars fast enough to challenge their specially equipped cruisers.

In July 2005, Clay ordered more emphasis on speeding by periodically putting more troopers on the roads. Last year, the patrol wrote 433,984 tickets, 100,000 more than it did just six years ago; Clay thinks last year's total is the highest ever.

Even so, speed-related deaths investigated by the patrol last year increased 23 percent. The number so far this year is slightly lower.

"We believe, consistently now, that speed is coming out as our number one cause of fatalities and collisions," Clay said.

Last year, by comparison with 2000, the patrol cited about 40 percent more drivers going faster than 55 mph and more than 15 mph over the speed limit. The number caught running 100 mph or more increased by 79 percent, an N&O analysis of patrol data shows.

Almost half the drivers charged with speeding last year were younger than 30. For that age group, the leading cause of death is vehicle crashes, according to the State Center for Health Statistics.

Speed is dangerous for three reasons: It leaves a driver less time to react. It requires more time to stop. And it magnifies the damage at impact. A crash at 80 mph is four times as bad as one at 40 mph.

Speeding drivers, especially chronic speeders, are more likely to have accidents, The N&O's analysis shows. Sometimes they just smash a fender. Sometimes they break a bone. Sometimes they kill themselves -- or someone like Joe Williams.