Clark County, IN (WDRB) -- Police are already out in full force this holiday weekend, looking for speeders.
Indiana State Police Trooper Matt Busick sees speeders all the time in a rush to get to their destination. The rush this weekend for some is to get to the Indy 500. There are heavy police patrols on I-65 north up to Indianapolis.
Busick told one driver on Friday, "The reason I stopped you sir... I clocked you at 76. It's 55 through here. Where are you going today?" The driver says, "Heading to the race."
Busick says, "With a laser timing device here, it gives me the speed of the vehicle, miles per hour. With this, it puts a light on the vehicle when I pull the trigger. What I do is take a visual estimate first and confirm it with the laser."
As part of the "Click it or Ticket" enforcement campaign that runs through June 3rd, ISP and 250 law enforcement agencies throughout the state will be on the lookout for certain kinds of drivers.
If you speed, follow too closely, make unsafe lane changes, fail to buckle up, or properly restrain children, expect to see the blue and red flashing lights and get a ticket.
Busick says, "Any day we'll have people 10-15 miles over the speed limit or some over 100 miles an hour." AAA estimates nearly 35 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more this weekend.
So, troopers will also be aggressively looking for impaired drivers, saying Memorial Day ranks right up there with New Year's Eve. Busick says, "Holiday weekend will be much more because people will be getting together in groups. So we'll probably see an increase in drunk driving activity."
Last year, there were nearly 1200 crashes during Memorial Day weekend in Kentucky. Seven people died and nearly 400 were hurt.
Police are stressing that drivers need to slow down not only to save you money on getting a ticket, but to save lives.
Busick says, "For a non-holiday weekend, usually officers can probably stop around 10 vehicles on an average day." He says police will probably see an increase over this holiday weekend.
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