OHP: Fewer Oklahomans On The Road, But Speeding Is A Problem

Fewer Oklahomans are on the roads right now as more people stay home. But Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers and police officers said many drivers are speeding. 

A trooper in Payne County took a picture in his patrol unit recently, showing a driver on I-35 near Stillwater hit 110 miles per hour.

“Just follow the law, and we'll all get through this,” Sand Springs Police Captain Todd Enzbrenner said.

Enzbrenner said he noticed another trend on the road; he is seeing marks left behind from people doing donuts.

"I was on 169 the other day and I saw donuts in the middle of the highway in like three or four different places,” he said. “And at first I thought it was a wreck, but then I was like, no, they're like every half mile or mile, there's donuts in the middle of the road."

Enzbrenner said while his officers aren't seeing many issues in Sand Springs they are doing their best to be seen out on the roads.

"We're not doing the normal traffic stops where we'd see somebody fail to signal, those kinds of things. We're looking for aggressive driving,” he said.

The OHP said right now it does not have data to release on traffic or crashes during the pandemic, but CBS News reports California's average speed is up 30% on some roads and Minnesota has seen traffic deaths double.

"We certainly don't want to have to notify a family that their loved one was killed in car crash because somebody was acting reckless,” Enzbrenner said.

A speeding ticket in Oklahoma can cost you around $200 or more, depending on your speed.