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Show 1 ' J I Asks for new radar units Disregard of speed limit rampant, judge says i I Describing what he called a "blatant I' disregard" for the 55 mile an hour speed limit, Cedar Precinct Justice of the Peace Haldow Christensen made a plea to the Iron County Commissioners Wednesday to budget funds for two new radars for local law enforcement officers. of-ficers. He said the new radar units would be I able to operate without being detected by "fuzzbusters"-small units able to detect the presence of radar-and would greatly enhance enforcement of the 55 1 mile an hour speed limit. I "A great deal of apathy has set in I concerning the 55 mile an our speed limit, " Christensen said, "Pe'ople no I longer feel a need to conserve and the I price of gas will not make one bit of difference." Averages 300 Judge Christensen said more than half-probably 75 percent or moreof the speed offenders are out of state drivers. Lt. Bishop said California is a "high density state with a lot of people traveling through Utah" so it appears like a lot of violators are from the Sunshine State. No worse "But all in all they are not any worse than any other state's drivers," he added. Bishop said at its inception, the 55 mile an hour rule "worked" in Utah. "Utahns tended to obey it," he said, "due to patriotism and a concern for fuel shortage. But it slowly changed and apathy has set in." He said the most common "excuse" when picked up for speeding is that the traveler "had to hurry to get there," or that they were just keeping up with traffic. Others he said, claim the trooper must have clocked someone else-"they know they weren't going that fast." The new radar units requested-at a price tag of $2900 each-are undetectable un-detectable by any known "fuzzbuster," Sgt. Ellory Mason, of the Highway Patrol said. Fuzzbusters or bear-finders, bear-finders, as they are also known, pick up the radar frequency as it is sent out from the trooper's unit. The radar unit works on a principle of bouncing off the vehicle in question. Different frequency Christensen said he averages about 300 speeding arrests in his court each month, with about $7,000 being turned over the county monthly. "We've been pretty busy this past six months," he said. January tabulations show 364 speeding tickets in the Cedar precinct alone (south of Summit to the Washington County line) the judge said. February had 342, March 426, April 418, May 230 and June 229. July, however, has shown a significant increase, due to the presence of a special roving team of troopers in the southwestern counties. The "roving unmarked task squad" made 903 speeding arrests in the period i from June 278 to July 3, Christensen and Lt. Neil Bishop of the Utah Highway High-way Patrol said. Three hundred and six warning violations of the 55 mile and hour speed limit were also issued along with four driving under the influence violations. The special force also arrested five occupants of and recovered, four stolen vehicles, all in the six day period. Not payin' attention "The vast majority of those arrested are not just not paying attention," Bishop said. "And they' are not convinced con-vinced there is a fuel crunch. Nor do they feel the 55 speed limit has any merits from the safety standpoint," But, Bishop points out, Utah's fatal accidents have seen a 70 percent increase in-crease this year over last, due, he said, to higher speeds. i "We are striving for a tremendous amount of pressure for compliance to the 55 mile an hcvr speed limit." He said the rovig task force is part of this pressure The federally funded operations consts of between four and six men working five to seven days in a week moving from zone to zone in Utah. Fuzzbusters have a range of up to two miles. The new units would have a different frequency, Mason said, as well as a different system of computing the speed of vehicles. Radar is a highly plausible piece of evidence in any court proceedings, Mason said, "and I've never lost a case with radar." He said under ideal conditions the radar also has range up to two miles but generally officers visually locate a speeding vehicle then clock with the radar at about 1500 to 1000 feet away. He said ideally the vehicle is clocked while going in the opposite direction. He said all officers have been trained in the use of the radar unit and they can also pick out a speeding vehicle in a group of other cars. "It's fool-proof," Mason said. "It has built-in safety factors to make it accurate ac-curate to within one hundredth of one mile an hour. I say there is no chance of getting the wrong car." Sgt. Mason also said people very seldom argue, when stopped, with the radar's reading, but generally state that "everyone else is going just as fast." |