Cat Andersen/Eyewitness News
Indianapolis - After crunching the numbers on more than 100,000 tickets, we found several locations hot on the radar.
One of those zones was on the South Side at 4300 S. East Street. It's near the intersection of U.S. 31 and Interstate 465. The posted speed limit is 40 miles per hour. More than 1,700 drivers were caught speeding there in 2008.
"We're focusing on these areas because of the high volume of crashes," Don Bickel from the Marion County Traffic Safety Partnership told us.
"I've seen a lot of cars explode out here into multiple pieces," Indiana State Police Trooper Shanna Kennedy said.
Most drivers will tell you they know speeding is dangerous, even deadly. But they give officers a different story to justify it.
"I was speeding trying to do some private investigative work. You know cheaters? My husband was cheating so I was distraught just trying to rush around to see and I had to hurry to get back to work," Kika Johnson from Indianapolis claimed.
Judge William Young says he's heard and seen it all. "Oh, I had the one. The guy told me his speedometer cable was rusted so it wouldn't go [above] 30 miles an hour so his car wouldn't go faster than 30 miles an hour."
"You think you've heard it all and then there's always going to be one that's going to be a little bit different," Trooper Kennedy told us.
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Officer Chad Dixon remembers the excuse from one driver. "She said but you can't write me a ticket because I'm from Carmel."
Trooper Kennedy also remembers another driver's excuse, "The dog passing gas was one of them for traveling over 100 miles an hour in a 55. Problem with that was he didn't have his window rolled down."
"Another one I get a lot. 'I didn't know. I didn't know that was the speed limit,'" Judge Young said.
But what if drivers really don't know the speed limit?
Along Ronald Reagan Parkway at Interstate 70 on the West Side, we found drivers getting off the interstate in one direction have to drive about a mile before they see their first speed limit sign.
Right below on the interstate, more than 3,000 people were cited along Interstate 70 near Ronald Reagan Parkway where the speed limit is 55 miles per hour.
"If nobody drives 55 then go to the legislature," Judge Young advised.
If they did they might have a case. A study by the Institute of Transportation Engineers shows that if a speed limit is raised to reflect the actual speed of 85 percent of the drivers on that road, the new, higher limit will make the road safer, improving the flow of traffic and greatly reducing the number of crashes.
We asked the Chairman of the House Roads and Transportation Committee if they would consider raising the speed limit to harmonize with the flow of traffic.
State Representative Terri Austin is a Democrat representing District 36 in Anderson. She said, "The 55 limit by urban, in urban areas is set by I believe federal regulation so I don't think there would be much inclination on the part of the General Assembly at this point to try to tackle that."
Ticket Trail - See data related to when and where you're most likely to get a ticket.
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