Police are seeing more reckless driving in Utah
Aug 15, 2024, 8:00 PM
Cpl. Colbey Bentley with the Tooele Police Department says that after the pandemic he noticed an uptick in speeding, running of red lights, and overall reckless driving in Utah. (Tooele County Sheriff)
(Tooele County Sheriff)
SALT LAKE CITY — Drivers are breaking speed limits and running red lights more frequently, police say.
Cpl. Colbey Bentley with the Tooele Police Department says that after the pandemic he noticed an uptick in speeding, running of red lights, and overall reckless driving in Utah.
“Running red lights is at a much higher rate than we dealt with before. It’s so frequent that I’m convinced I could sit at a stoplight, and every single round of red lights that come through, I’ll get someone,” he said.
He added that traffic citations aren’t much of a deterrent anymore for many drivers.
It used to be teens who were more likely to be involved in reckless driving in Utah. However, in recent years adults are the main culprits, he said.
“The biggest offenders now that we’re dealing with aren’t kids. They’re adults in their late 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s,” he said.
Cpl. Bentley also brought up a recent auto-pedestrian fatality in Tooele.
“We had a pedestrian get hit out here the other day and ended up losing his life. It’s through simple things that we can avoid these gigantic consequences,” he said.
