Kansas moves to create ‘safety corridors’ with enhanced violation penalties

The Kansas state Senate gave tentative approval Wednesday to a bill that would clear the way for the state to designate the freeway sections of Kellogg Road through Wichita and K-10, the highway linking Lawrence and Lenexa, as “safety corridors” with enhanced penalties for speeding and other moving violations. The bill would double the fines for moving violations committed in a safety corridor, according to a Wichita Eagle report.

As the bill stands, violations in safety corridors would be ineligible for “diversion,” a program in which motorists can get a ticket dismissed if they pay a fee and keep a clean driving record for a specified period of time. In addition, it would require that violations of 5 mph or more over the speed limit go on the driver’s record if the offense is committed in a safety corridor.

Outside safety corridors, speeding violations of less than 10 mph don’t go on the record, the Eagle reported.

Sen. Les Donovan, R-Wichita, said that the designation would help save lives, like those of two 5-year-old children killed in separate accidents on Kellogg and on K-10.

 “It’s something that needs to happen,” Donovan said. “We have people dying out there that don’t need to.”

And it would make it much harder for errant drivers to keep a traffic violation from coming to the attention of their insurance company and raising their rates.”