A Shoshoni Police Department officer cited a Wisconsin man just after noon Thursday for driving 92 mph in the town’s 30 mph zone, the department says.
Officer Megan Lee had been sitting on the west, or Riverton side of town with her radar pointed right through it, she told Cowboy State Daily in a Friday phone interview.
Lee said she had to double check her radar when it clocked the man driving a smallish SUV at 92 mph. He was rocketing into town while trying to pass a truck, just after the highway coming from Casper dropped into Shoshoni’s 30 mph zone.
Lee said she made no assumptions when she approached the driver: he could have been in any state from intoxicated to furious, to having a medical emergency.
“Honestly I’ve done this for a really long time, and you never really know,” said Lee in a Friday phone interview. “You really don’t know (what’s going on) until you get up and talk to him.”
This man wasn’t drunk, drugged, or having a medical emergency, she said.
“And he was just like, ‘You got me,’” recalled Lee.
She said she appreciated the man’s apologies and accountability.
She cast it as a tough call, whether to ticket him or arrest him for reckless driving.
On the one hand, his speed was outlandish. On the other, he wasn’t yet into the heart of town and he seemed to regret a momentary, though severe lapse of judgement.
“Changing the behavior is aways the goal, you know, in law enforcement,” said Lee. “And I felt with my interaction with him that, you know, the public safety concerns had been solved with the citation.”
The ticket is for $556, she said.
Shocked, Lee sent a photo of the ticket to Shoshoni Police Department Chief Chris Konija, who posted it to Facebook with a message urging people to be safer.
Police Say Not A Speed Trap
Arranged in a quaint blip around the Highway 789 thoroughfare from Riverton to Casper, Shoshoni has a reputation as a speed trap. Police vehicles enforcing the 30 mph speed limit sit visibly on any given day, either on the Riverton end of town or the Casper end, or both.
The department denies running a speed trap.
“We’re just more visible,” said Konija. “We try to be on the street where we are visible. Some people see us, and hopefully slow down going into town, if they do see us.”
Konija said people going mildly over the speed limit don’t tend to get pulled over, but people who’ve made themselves a public safety risk do.
Lee echoed that.
“Our average speed that we pull people over for, last time I looked, it was like 48 mph in a 30,” she said. “It’s very clearly marked.”
Both Lee and Konija noted the presence of a crosswalk on the main drag, which kids use to get to school.
“When you’re grossly negligent, you know, you’re making that choice for yourself,” said Lee.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
