Speeding ticket numbers down, fatalities up on Illinois roads

Things are changing on Illinois’ interstates. Over the past five years, the number of Illinois State Police troopers on patrol and the number of speeding citations they’ve issued statewide have gone down significantly. Troopers issued 211,857 speeding tickets in 2010, and last year, 126,959 tickets were issued, a decline of 40 percent. In 2016, state police handed out 78,006 speeding tickets through Sept. 30, putting the agency on pace to end the year at 104,000 tickets. The data was obtained through the state’s Freedom of Information Act. Meanwhile, the number of traffic fatalities statewide has bounced around a bit, but overall, the number of people killed on Illinois’ roads is higher than it was five years ago. In fact, for the first time since 2008, Illinois in 2016 has surpassed the 1,000 mark in annual statewide fatalities. Is there a correlation between the two? Please click to read the rest of the story from John Reynolds of the Springfield Journal-Register.