Troopers: Thunderstorms only make high speeds more hazardous

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SALT LAKE CITY — Thunderstorms that surfaced Wednesday have increased road danger as troopers have already been working to slow down high speeds and bad road behavior on Utah freeways.

"You've got drivers over the posted speed limit driving with standing water on the road," UHP Sgt. Cameron Roden said. He drove an unmarked cruiser and observed other drivers with a KSL-TV crew. "Your chances of hydroplaning go up significantly even in just wet and rainy conditions."

Roden said high speeds on their own are still a major issue troopers are trying to address. KSL has reported on dangerous cases recently that Roden noted.

He said it's part of an increasing trend that UHP has been attempting to counter in recent years, beginning with the pandemic.

"That COVID-19 timeframe is when we really saw things dramatically increase to where we were seeing over 5,000 instances a year where troopers were stopping cars for over 100 miles per hour," he said. "We still get troopers regularly that tell us, 'hey, we're still getting speeds that high.'"

Roden said it is still too early to tell how effective changes in the law made last year would be in discouraging high speeds. Those changes included increased fines and classifying speeds 105 miles per hour as reckless driving.

We can't rationalize, 'hey I can do that 5 to 10 over (the speed limit). I can go a little bit over because that's what everybody else is doing.

–Sgt. Cameron Roden, UHP

He acknowledged that as much as troopers work around the clock to make freeways and highways safer, there aren't enough of them to catch all of the bad behavior. He urged motorists to help police themselves.

"We can't rationalize, 'hey I can do that 5 to 10 over (the speed limit). I can go a little bit over because that's what everybody else is doing,'" Roden said.