http://www.startribune.com/stories/1557/4915799.html
Last update: August 7, 2004 at 12:06 AM
114 mph plus cell phone equals ticket
David Chanen, Star Tribune August 7, 2004
SPEED0807
Not even the speediest fastball in the major leagues could have kept up with a 20-year-old woman from Clearwater, Minn., who was running late for work.
A radar gun clocked Yelena Koop's red Acura at 114 miles per hour on Interstate Hwy. 94 near Monticello about 8 a.m. Tuesday.
The speed limit on that often busy commuting stretch of freeway northwest of the Twin Cities is 70 mph, and Koop was going 44 mph over the speed limit, according to authorities.
Koop, who was talking on a cell phone, apparently didn't immediately notice the state trooper's flashing lights in her rearview mirror, said Nathan Bowie, spokesman for the Department of Public Safety.
Koop was cited for speeding and driving with a revoked license.
The trooper who caught her said he's never given anybody a ticket for such a high speed in his 14 years on the job, Bowie said. But several troopers told him it's not unusual to nab speeders who are going 90 to 100 mph, he said.
Bowie said the fine for going that fast is $220. Koop has a mandatory court date, when she could also be fined $1,000 for the invalid license. She has had two other speeding tickets in the past three years.
She couldn't be reached for comment Friday.
A three-week effort by state law enforcement agencies last month that focused on speeding netted more than 21,000 tickets, which would average nearly 1,200 a day.
Out of 172 agencies that reported tickets, Minneapolis issued the most, 2,132. The Safe & Sober initiative was coordinated by the Public Safety Department's Office of Traffic Safety.
"Motorists sometimes don't see the speed limit as the law and a public safety guide," Bowie said.
He cautioned that driving itself is multitasking, but throw in speeding and talking on a cell phone and there is serious potential for tragedy.
In 2002, inattention was cited as a contributor in 28,413 crashes, which caused 137 deaths and nearly 15,000 injuries in Minnesota.
That same year, illegal or unsafe speeds led to nearly 13,000 crashes, causing 184 deaths and nearly 7,000 injuries.
David Chanen is at [email protected].