Old-School Air Method Still Catching Speeders

Speeders along Interstate 25 near the El Paso-Pueblo county line saw a long-running Colorado State Patrol program take flight again Friday morning.

Aerial speed enforcement was launched in the 1960s and has been running ever since.

The process of catching speeders this way is the same as it has been since the program first took to the skies: Someone in the plane times cars between two given points and relays the speed to troopers ahead of the cars on the road.

“It’s an effective tool and it’s been around for 40 to 45 years,” said Sgt. Steve Ortiz with Colorado State Patrol. “As long as we can, we’ll continue to use the aircraft for traffic safety operations.”

Many factors, like bad weather and high call volumes, keep the planes grounded but on a day like Friday, all the elements came together to allow a crew of one plane and four state troopers to catch speeders along I-25.

“I-25 is always a good area to be working simply because of traffic volume but we also get a lot of calls for service on the interstate {and} there are traffic complaints,” said Sgt. Ortiz. “When we can make our presence known on the interstate, it really goes a long way.”

On Friday, troopers made 22 stops and issued 21 tickets in two hours through the aerial speed enforcement program.

Close to 90 percent of those speeders were going at least 10 mph over the speed limit.

Three were cited for aggressive driving according to state troopers.