‘You’re passing cars like a picket fence’: Officials seeing more super speeders in metro Atlanta

FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. — They’re called “super speeders,” and a metro area sheriff’s official says they’re on the rise.

These are drivers who go 75 miles per hour on a two-lane road or 85 miles per hour on the highway. The state fines super speeders and extra $200.

Lieutenant Scotty Spriggs of the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office told Channel 2′s Brian Mims he’s seeing more of these speeders on the road.

“We could go out to (Georgia) 400 right now; if I had seven folks, we could all probably stop seven people doing 85 and above,” he said.

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Working traffic along Georgia 400 Monday, he regularly clocked drivers in the 65 mph zone going more than 80 mph.

“And then you got these folks that are doing 95, 100 miles an hour, and they’re zipping in and out of traffic, that’s creating a safety issue,” he said.

His message comes after a fellow deputy in December clocked a driver doing 70 miles an hour in a 35 mph zone. The driver failed to stop and reached speeds of more than 100 mph on Buford Highway and 144 mph on GA 400. Deputies safely stopped the car and the driver was arrested on several charges, including reckless driving and speeding.

“Our position is obviously the safety of the general public,” Spriggs said. “Are we chasing this car because of just the speed itself, or is it the reckless nature that this person has already exhibited – that he doesn’t care about everybody else that’s out here on the public roadways.”

In the December case, deputies used stop sticks and a precision immobilization technique also known as a PIT maneuver to stop the car.

Spriggs said aside from high fines and criminal charges, excessive speeds can cause catastrophic crashes.

“There is just no way that anything positive is going to come out of it,” he said. “It’s bad enough to have an accident, but the more speed you include in that collision, the body just cannot absorb that percussion,” he said. “Cars can be replaced, people can’t.”

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He said the pandemic has likely played a role in higher numbers of super speeders. In the early days of the pandemic, traffic and enforcement were light.

“With the roadways being pretty vacant, everybody was wide open,” he said. “And it seems like that lull in enforcement activities has carried over to now.”

Spriggs knows there are habitual speeders out there. He said modern cars are quieter and smoother, making it easier to speed.

“But when you’re knocking up to 100 miles an hour, and you’re passing cars like a picket fence, it’s one of those things where you got to stop and think just a second about checking your speed,” he said. “All it requires is a little bit of paying attention and slowing down yourself, being cognizant of your surroundings.”

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