Arizona’s highway patrol has been busy on State Route 347. They’re catching and arresting excessive speeders, hauling away the perpmobiles and posting “trophy” photos to their Facebook page. 

State troopers Saturday caught one driver going 100 miles per hour in a posted 65 zone on SR 347. The driver was booked into jail for criminal speed and reckless driving. The vehicle was impounded, according to the Arizona Department of Public Safety. 

“Speeding is the single largest contributing factor to fatal injury crashes,” wrote AZDPS Highway Patrol on their Facebook page. “We don’t get any revenue from speeding tickets. We are tired of making tragically sad death notifications to grieving families.” 

Yesterday afternoon, AZDPS troopers stopped another speeder on Maricopa’s most beaten breadth of blacktop. This time, a motorcycle was clocked at 98 miles per hour. The motorcyclist was arrested and booked into jail on charges of criminal speed and reckless driving.

That hog was put to the pen.

Last night, AZDPS troopers posted a third speeder arrest after a Dodge Charger — with what appeared to be Scat Pack or SRT Hellcat trim — traveling 104 miles per hour in the posted 65-mile-per-hour zone on SR 347.

According to state police, all three drivers were charged with reckless driving and criminal speeding, misdemeanors punishable by months of jail time, years on probation and thousands of dollars in fines. Repeat offenders risk losing their licenses.

According to a crash analysis by the Maricopa Association of Governments, SR 347 averaged a crash every other day from 2017 to 2022. The northern segment of 347, near Riggs Road, is considered a “hotspot” for wrecks. There, over 77% of crashes are rear-end collisions, often caused by congestion and sudden stops. 

At least 7 people die every year on this section of roadway, according to the most recent Arizona Department of Transportation study and details from 347Facts.com, a grassroots advocacy website dedicated to the expansion of the only direct route between Maricopa and the Phoenix Valley.  

Eight people died on SR 347 in 2017, seven in 2019 and nine in 2022.  

ADOT notes that many fatal crashes occur in the rural, “dark, unlit” sections of the state route, with speed being noted as a factor in almost every crash. In November, Stacker cited the SR 347 intersections at Riggs Road and Maricopa Road as two of the 10 deadliest in the West. 

InMaricopa contacted the highway patrol’s spokesman this morning with questions about the department’s plans and objectives for traffic enforcement on SR 347. The traffic unit wasn’t available today.