DOTHAN, Ala. — We’ve all been there before, the lights flash, and immediately you realize you were speeding.
In 2020, the Dothan Police Department issued over 20,000 citations.
“Of those citations, only 5,000 of them were actual payable citations the other 15,000 that we wrote were warnings,” Traffic Division Lieutenant Dennis Sallas said.
According to Sallas, DPD officers write three times as many warnings as they do citations. The department’s main concern when it comes to speeding is safety, but as for the top speeding locations in town, Sallas says it’s spread across the city.
“Westgate Park, all of Westgate, all of Honey Suckle, Ross Clark Circle is, all the way around it there are some really hot spots,” he said. “As far as just particular areas, it’s hard to say a particular area in Dothan has more than the next because we get complaints all over Dothan from people every day.”
By Wednesday afternoon, there were seven wrecks which resulted in five people being transported to the hospital. On average, Dothan police see anywhere from 30-49 wrecks a week and out of those at least half are speeding-related.
“A large majority of our wrecks do have some type of speeding involved whether it’s going too fast to slow down for the red light or being too close to the car in front of you,” Sallas said. “We try to give out warnings whenever possible if we feel we can get the same message across with a warning then we will. If it’s just blatant 20 over the speed limit or higher or something like that, then you are probably going to get a citation.”
So remember put your seatbelts on, put your phones away, and make sure to pay close attention to any posted speed limits to avoid speeding citations.
