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Need for speed: Speeding tickets most common traffic citation in Pennsylvania
Jon Andreassi/Observer-Reporter
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In a five-year period, police throughout Pennsylvania handed out more than 5.8 million traffic citations to drivers.
If you were one of them, chances are you needed to pump the brakes.
The Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts (AOPC) issued a press release recently detailing the top 10 traffic violations between 2018 and 2022. Of those 5.8 million citations, 21% were speeding tickets. The next most common violations were driving an unregistered vehicle and operating a vehicle without a valid inspection, each making up 10% of the total.
According to the AOPC, police in the state wrote an average of 3,196 traffic citations per day.
AOPC provided the raw data used to generate these statistics, including the county-level data. Drivers headed through Washington County received more than 21,000 speeding tickets in that time frame, while drivers in Fayette County had slightly more than 14,000. Greene County motorists had about 6,500.
For local police departments, the types of citations officers write up can vary. In Canonsburg, intersections with stop signs and traffic lights more easily control the pace of traffic.
“Obviously, speeding exists,” said Canonsburg police Chief Alex Coghill. “But it’s more traffic signal and traffic sign kinds of violations.”
Tom Kolencik, public information officer for Uniontown police, described a similar situation. He pointed out state police tend to get most of the speeders while patrolling the interstates.
“Uniontown is stop sign to stop sign, stop light to stop light. Most of our citations are more equipment violations, running stop signs and running traffic lights,” Kolencik said.
Per the AOPC’s statistics, failure to obey traffic control devices made up 6% of citations statewide.
The AOPC was also able to determine which demographic groups were most likely to be ticketed.
According to their statistics, 63% of traffic citations were given to men, and 30% were written up for drivers in their 30s.
Police typically include multiple details about the offending vehicle when writing a ticket, including the color. According to the AOPC, 23% of ticketed vehicles were black in color, and 20% were white. Green, maroon, dark blue and gold each made up 2% of the total.
The AOPC reminds motorists that they face a $199 fine for going 10 mph in a 65 to 70 mph zone, and a $234 fine if they are 20 mph over the limit.