Utah troopers stop more than 3,500 vehicles for speeding in first 2 weeks of 2023

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Highway Patrol said troopers stopped more than 10,000 vehicles in the state during the first two weeks of the new year.

Among those 10,028 stops from Jan. 1 to Jan. 15, 3,567 were pulled over for speeding — 177 of which were traveling 100 mph, and 70 were considered reckless, which is 105 mph or higher.

The other reasons for initiating traffic stops were:

• 116 for DUIs
• 302 for seat belts
• 1,799 for equipment safety
• 9 for driving the wrong way

Additional stats for that two-week period include 2,587 total crashes throughout the state — a 17.6% increase from 2022. Nine of those were fatal.

Troopers responded to 892 of those crashes, which is a 37.4% increase from 2022. Among those that UHP responded to, two were fatal — a 66.6% decrease from the previous year.

UHP said in their Facebook post Thursday that they saw a record high number of speeders in 2022 and “would really like to see a decrease this year.”

Other notable stats include:

• UHP crashes have increased 26.6% from the five-year average (704)
• UHP fatal crashes have decreased 44.4% from the five-year average (3.6)
• UHP fatalities have decreased 50% from the five-year average (4)