Californians who are caught speeding at more than 100 mph will now face new disciplinary actions imposed by the Department of Motor Vehicles that could include losing their driving privileges.
It’s the latest in a series of moves in recent years aimed at trying to reverse increases in fatal car accidents across California. Since 2010, fatalities and serious injuries related to speeding and aggressive driving increased by 52%, according to the California Department of Transportation.
The pilot program, called Forwarded Actions for Speeding Tickets, is a joint effort by the DMV and California Highway Patrol, according to the California State Transportation Agency. The program was launched last week.
“We want to take immediate action against dangerous drivers before their carelessness leads to a deadly crash,” said Steve Gordon, director of the DMV. “We’re being proactive, and together with our CHP partners, we’re ready to put the brakes on this reckless behavior.”
What is the program?
On average, CHP officers issue about 1,600 citations each month to drivers flying down the road at speeds in excess of 100 mph, according to the California State Transportation Agency. In 2024, CHP issued more then 18,000 such citations.
Under the new pilot program, every driver who is ticketed by the CHP for exceeding 100 mph — regardless of their prior driving record — will have their citation automatically forwarded to the DMV’s Driver Safety Branch.
The DMV will then review the case and the driver’s history to determine next steps. The DMV has the discretion to impose penalties that could include the suspension or revocation of driving privileges.
This administrative process can proceed independently of any court conviction.
FAST isn’t a permanent program. The DMV will evaluate the program’s impact by comparing citation and outcome data to the same period the previous year.
Some California highways are deadly
Deaths from traffic fatalities have been creeping up for years but appeared to worsen during the pandemic, with some officials blaming reckless drivers.
The Times reported in 2023 that 336 people died in crashes in Los Angeles alone, the highest number since the city started keeping statistics more than two decades ago.
Over the last decade, nearly 40,000 people have died and more than 2 million have been injured on California roads, according to a CalMatters investigation.
In 2023 alone, there were approximately 3,600 fatalities and more than 14,000 serious injuries on all state public roads, according to data from the California State Transportation Agency.
The deaths and injures were caused by a combination of repeat drunk drivers, chronic speeders and motorists with documented histories of reckless driving, CalMatters reported.
To understand where traffic deaths happen and the factors that contribute to them, researchers from ConsumerAffairs analyzed data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Fatality Analysis Reporting System in California from 2018 to 2022. The analysis found that speed was a major factor in traffic collisions that lead to death or injury.
In its 2024 report, ConsumerAffairs found that the uptick in these specific incidents was partially driven by reckless drivers who took advantage of less-congested roads during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Researchers were able to pinpoint this driver behavior on 10 stretches of state roads primarily in Southern California.
The five deadliest stretches of road were:
- The 15 Freeway in San Bernardino County: 48 deaths in 2022, up from 33 in 2018
- The 10 Freeway in Riverside County: 31 deaths in 2022, up from 25 in 2018
- The 5 Freeway in San Diego County: 21 deaths in 2022, up from 19 in 2018
- 5 Freeway in Orange County: 16 deaths in 2022, up from 14 in 2018
- The 101 Freeway in Santa Barbara County: 15 deaths in 2022, up from 7 in 2018
Time will tell whether this latest crackdown will see success.
Over the last decade, state and local officials have tried numerous approaches with mixed results. Cities have installed speed bumps on streets, lowered speed limits and leaned on law enforcement to imposed local crackdowns. There was even a proposal to equip new cars with “speed governors” that would limit how fast they could drive over the speed limit.
In 2023, cities with streets that had the highest rate of injury and death were permitted to install speed cameras to capture license plates of speeders and automatically send them tickets as part of a five-year pilot program.
The cities of Los Angeles, Glendale, Long Beach, San José, Oakland and San Francisco were initially chosen for this program. After fierce advocacy, the city of Malibu was added to the program a year later.
Under the pilot program, drivers caught exceeding the speed limit by 11 to 15 mph will face a $50 fine, with going over by 15 to 25 mph resulting in a $100 fine, driving more than 26 to 99 mph over the speed limit equates to a $200 fine and those going more than 100 mph will be fined $500.
Many Southern California cities are set to roll out the cameras or begin issuing citations sometime next year. Glendale has activated its speed cameras in nine locations, according to the city website. Los Angeles’ cameras are projected to begin operations in mid-2026, and Long Beach is expected to install 18 cameras in the spring.
Malibu’s 21-mile stretch of Pacific Coast Highway, known as a hot spot for crashes and scores of fatalities, is projected to install the cameras by the spring.
Malibu public safety director Susan Dueñas’ personal goal is to have the cameras fully operational starting Memorial Day in anticipation of the influx of summer visitors.
Dueñas told the Times the cameras are a critical component to the overall goal of making Pacific Coast Highway safer.
“We want people to come to Malibu and have a good time and not have tragedies,” Dueñas said. “We’ve had way too many and it’s exhausting.”
On Oct. 17, the city marked two years since the deadly crash that killed four Pepperdine University students — Niamh Rolston, Peyton Stewart, Asha Weir and Deslyn Williams — that propelled renewed focus on improved road safety.
In the Bay Area, the city of San José was planning to install up to 33 cameras this year, which will issue a citation to drivers caught running a red light, NBC reported. The city began installing red-light cameras over the summer.
Oakland is installing 18 speed cameras over the next six weeks, the Oaklandside reported.
Once the camera systems are installed in any of the seven cities, speeding drivers will be issued warning notices for the first 60 days.
San Francisco is the first community to install, undergo the warning period and begin issuing citations in August. Officials say the program has been effective at lowering speeding by 72% in 15 key locations where the cameras were installed.
About 20,000 fewer vehicles are speeding at these locations daily, according to an initial study by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency.
The Bay Area drivers were given a 60-day warning period between June and July. The warning period ended in August, and the agency reported issuing 16,555 citations to drivers going over the speed limit.