SALEM, OR -- With Oregonians anxious to hit the road this summer, State Police are watching for the “Fatal Five”: Speed, Occupant Safety - like seatbelts, Lane Safety, Distracted Driving, Impaired Driving. Capt. Stephanie Bigman says all decreased during the pandemic except one; Driving impaired. "Look at from 2016 to current, really, they’ve stayed pretty static," she tells KBND News. So, statewide, DUII citations held steady over the past two years, despite an overall reduction in driving. 

And, now that people are back out on the roads in droves, she says triple-digit speeds are a growing, deadly problem. "Troopers can easily go out and sit on the freeway and if they just wait a little bit, they can get a car coming over a hundred miles an hour." In one recent incident, Captain Bigman says, a Trooper pulled over a driver for going more than 110, and found an unsecured child asleep in the back seat.

Bigman says the number of traffic fatalities don’t tell the whole story, "The fatality rates may not jump a ton in different things, because cars are getting safer. But they’re getting faster and, at some point, speed overtakes the safety factors of the cars." She says some drivers know law enforcement agencies are short-staffed and think they can get away with high speeds - not realizing the serious risks.