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Martin County deputies crack down on speeding following 4 recent deaths

Posted at 4:55 PM, Oct 28, 2022
and last updated 2022-10-28 16:55:38-04

MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. — Cracking down on speeding. The Martin County Sheriff's Office is wrapping up its extra enforcement initiative along U.S. 1.

Deputies have written hundreds of tickets in hopes of creating safer roadways after four people were killed on the road just last week.

Most of U.S. 1 in Stuart is 45 miles per hour, but residents said drivers go well above that.

A car was clocked going 102 miles per hour on Friday.

"We don’t know what’s going through their mind. Why would someone be traveling 102 miles an hour in a 45 mile an hour zone?" one resident said.

That's just one example of the more than 200 citations and nearly 100 warnings given this week through Martin County’s high intensity speeding enforcement.

It averages out to nearly 100 traffic stops a day.

Section by section, MCSO deputies stationed themselves along U.S. 1.

The agency launched the program in light of last week's tragedy where four people were killed on U.S. 1 near Stuart.

"We could sit here all day, enforce traffic, and still come tomorrow and do the same thing day after day," said Ken Hornberger, the owner of John's Plumbing.

Hornberger said the extra enforcement is long overdue.

"This has definitely been a problem and it’s getting worse. We have more people, more traffic," Hornberger said.

Sheriff William Snyder said the Martin County Sheriff's Office will keep monitoring U.S. 1. but if another incident happens, extra enforcement will be back out once again.