(00:00:01) Colonel Roger letting is the chief of the State Patrol Division of the Minnesota Department of Public. Safety has joined us in st. Paul today to speak with us about a number of issues regarding safety on the road the driving habits of minnesotans and compliance with the 55 mile per hour speed limit Colonel letting heads up a department of about 742 Personnel. He has been with the state patrol for about twenty three and a half years and if I have the information the biographical information on you, correct Colonel letting I think you started at what was the rank you started with I have in my head Sergeant, but I can't remember at that time. We didn't have Troopers. Okay, the rank designation was an officer and I started as an officer back in 1957. Alright, 1957 23 and a half years in any case with the state patrol about 18 of those years as of what we now know as a trooper, that's correct. All right with us. Also is Marilyn he blur will be talking with Colonel lat. About some of the issues regarding the the activities of the Minnesota state patrol and I guess so Colonel letting the first thing is the 55 mile per hour speed limit. I know we've been hearing over the past few weeks. I think from your division that the compliance with the 55 mile per hour speed limit seems to be fairly good good enough at least to convince Federal officials that they should continue sending us the various funds that are attached to compliance with that 55 mile per hour limit. Can you give us the details or some of the details that you have regarding the facts that you you collected for seeing whether or not Minnesota is complying with the federal law. Well for September of nineteen through September of 1980, that's when the federal fiscal year ends for this this compliance Factor. We were expected to have a compliance of 40% of the motorists using the public highways and the information that we've gotten was that through that period of time we had better than a better than the 40 percent compliance matter of fact, the last quarter that the survey was conducted. That's June through September. We had a 48.3% compliance. With a 55 mile an hour speed limit in Minnesota and interestingly enough that of the people that were not complying only 10.9 were traveling in speeds in excess of 60 miles an hour so that the number of people that were traveling between 55 and 60 was actually 40.8% It seems like a fairly High rate of compliance. I guess. All I have is my own casual observation is I drive down the road and I'm sure everyone who talks to you your neighbors and everyone they say the same thing. Well Colonel letting that sounds very good. But when I'm driving 55 miles per hour on the freeway, it seems like everyone is passing me and that's my observation to you. It happened again this morning on the way to work. It seemed like everyone was passing me. Well, there's several things. One of them of course is the fact that you've got three lanes of traffic moving in the same direction out here in the in the interstate system when the traffic is moving. Well, I should say the rush hour traffic course naturally. You're not going to find that kind of speed. I relate that to my own observations this morning. Yeah, 45 miles an hour coming in you shortly after 7 o'clock and all traffic moving at approximately at that speed. There are times of the day when naturally traffic is moving faster than it is at other times. One of the things that we've noticed is out in the rural areas. The speed compliance is seems to be better and I base this on information that we've gotten from our project 20 and some of the other things some of the other surveys that we've made down in the metro area with the congestion of traffic when the traffic is able to move because of the sheer volume why we do have somewhat of a difficulty and of course our Troopers are involved in a lot of things when the traffic is heavy, they're involved in the investigation of accidents and we do a lot of emergency transportation of blood of Vital organs to four hospitals. There's a lot of things that Troopers can become tied up in so that I guess at the biggest complaint is that we don't see the Troopers often enough out there on the freeway system. And of course their presence definitely has a deterrent effect on the people that are traveling if you're traveling 55, your natural reaction is to glance at your speed and see if you're traveling within that 55. Are you personally convinced that 55 Works in terms of saving lives? Yes. I am and I the reason I say that is that in 1974. That's when the 55 mile an hour speed limit came into being and since 1974. We've had the number of fatalities in the state of Minnesota have been less and less each year. We're down at a level now, of course where it's I don't have the the final figures for this year because those final figures aren't published until 90 days after. The year ends to take into consideration the number of people that might not survive as a result of accidents that they were in back in 1980 with Miss with us in the studio in Saint Paul is Marilyn. He blur my colleague who spoke with you a couple of weeks ago in conjunction with another story. And before we get to listener questions in about oh 10 minutes or so listeners can call in and ask a questions of Colonel Roger letting the chief of the state patrol Marilyn has a few questions to put to you. All right Colonel letting I'm curious about how you go about collecting the data on the compliance. And then how you go about can convincing the federal government that our data is correct and that we are entitled to the funds. Well the method that's used to collect the data for the speed compliance is done by the Department of Transportation and they do this with vehicles pickup trucks vans automobiles. Plain, Mark automobiles. They They have the Department of Transportation the employees in them. They're not to this not conducted by the state patrol and it's done by a radar survey. They'll go out to different areas in the state and conduct these surveys and with the information that they have as a result of their surveys where the they determine whether there is in fact a compliance with the 55 mile an hour speed limit. In other words. There are traveling among us, even though we can't exactly tell that they're there that's true. How about the federal government? Are they overlapping in any way? Well, the federal government they have a genuine interest and concern about it because it's it's their responsibility to determine whether or not we're entitled to the monies that we might get or not get as a result of the compliance or non-compliance and they do audit our our surveys and the it's my understanding that they also conduct surveys to determine whether or not we have the proper compliance factors as I I understand it. The federal government is going to keep upping the compliance law each year now until I think it's going to be a 1983. Am I correct? We'll have to have 70% of the drivers complying. Does that pose a problem for your department or do you think we can reach that? Well, it's going to pose a problem. I don't think there's any question about that. I frankly think that we can reach it. I don't think that it's unattainable, but I think it's going to be attained with with a great deal of effort on the part of the motorists. Dan mentioned that we have a force in the amount of 742 what he didn't mention was that the 742 figure that includes all of the civilian Personnel the laborers are radio people actual uniform people when we're at full strength, we operate at 504 which is set by the legislature 504 in itself. Sounds like a pretty good-sized Force but it's really not when you consider the fact that the city of st. Paul the City of Minneapolis both are much larger and we cover the whole state of Minnesota. We can't provide 24-hour coverage throughout the state. We'd like to feel that we would like to see the day come that we can we do provide this the 24-hour coverage in the Minneapolis st. Paul area on the interstate system and also in some of the other areas of the state Rochester and Duluth, but there are so many parts of the state that we just can't provide the coverage. What is the jurisdiction of the state? Well, we have we have full jurisdiction on all roads in the state of Minnesota. We we are concerned naturally about the the state highways and the the interstate system. But if for example a Troopers traveling on a County Road, he Witnesses a violation in years past what he would do would be to sign a complaint as a private citizen. He doesn't have to do that anymore. Our jurisdiction extends to all of those roads so that a violation witnessed on a city street on a county road is Trooper can take enforcement action as a state trooper. So if I'm speeding through the city of st. Paul I can at least expect I could be arrested by a State Trooper that's true in light of the fact that you imply that the patrol maybe slightly understaffed does the patrol plan to go to the legislature and ask for any increase in Staffing or what has been your plan and the past. Well, we have a problem this year. We realized that there are budgetary constraints that are being placed in all departments ours included. We've we've been able to retain the budget that we have operated within 19 1979. But everything is increased including the cost of automobiles and and particularly the cost of gasoline. So that even though we are we are able to have been able to keep that same budget it in fact has been a cutback for us because of the number of things that we need in the things that we purchase that ever increased in cost. How did the cutbacks affect you well the so far they really haven't Marilyn the I shouldn't say they haven't they have in the sense that the cost of the gasoline of course has increased and this is this is cut into our our equipment budget and the cost of the Mobiles that were purchasing has increased even though we buy on a bit basis We Buy in a quantity those things have all increased and because of that way we have had that that that sensation of that that feeling about things we need more money to operate but I guess that's the Cry of every Department the state of Minnesota. How about the equipment? Have you been able to maintain the quality of the equipment? Are you having any problems there? We've been able to maintain the quality in the sense that we try to set our specifications up for bid process in a way that requires that that quality is provided. But one of the great problems that we have are the automobiles the automobiles now are being downsized and actually the manufacturer wants to operate in the black. So he's providing vehicles that are the type of vehicles that the public wants to purchase and the type of vehicles that we need for our operation are. Truly larger sized engines. We are experiencing a problem with that. In other words. There are cars out there perhaps faster than the state troopers cars. Unfortunately. Yes, some of the cars that are 10 years old some of these people have and they're using them why they are there on any number of them out there that are much faster than Troopers currents. They don't the one fortunate thing that we have is that so far we haven't been able to discover vehicle that will outrun a two-way radio yet. All right, we're talking with Colonel Roger letting the chief of the Minnesota state patrol Maryland Hebrew. My colleague has joined us to pose a few questions right now. We're going to give out a few telephone numbers that you can call to ask a question of Colonel letting if you're in the Twin Cities area, you can call us at 2 2 1 1 5 8 92211589. You can also call to to 115911591 in the Twin Cities listeners outside the Twin Cities, but living with in Minnesota can call us toll-free at 1-866-553-2368. The toll-free telephone number Colonel letting I have something to ask you about Highway courtesy, I guess, you know, I think I have heard that drivers if they are stranded on the road or supposed to stay with the car, especially in the case of driving on a freeway or an interstate. And it that the car should not be a left left or abandoned to seek help is that is that the rule? Well, we would like to we would like to have the people stay with her Vehicles particularly interstate system because as I mentioned before we have 24 hour coverage out there one of the dangers of course is a pedestrian that's out there on that freeway system. The traffic is moving along rather fast and and most of the people are aware of the fact that there are no pedestrians bicycles that sort of thing allowed on the freeway. And so they're not looking for those sort of things out there if the if the individual could raise the hood this this would help a great deal something to attract the attention of a passing trooper and we can get the assistance that they will need. In other words. There's a penalty for leaving the car is that right? There's not a penalty in that sense Stan. We if a person leaves an automobile, we place a red tag on that vehicle and you've probably seen them. On the freeway a vehicle that is unoccupied with a red tag sticking on it somewhere that red tag indicates that a trooper stopped at that location and observe the vehicle there with no one around it for hours from that time. If another Trooper if this Trooper ends is shift and another Trooper comes along you notice is the red tag takes a look at it and sees what the time element is if the vehicle hasn't been removed within a four-hour period why it is towed away. And so that we don't have a Congregation of parked Vehicles out there on the freeway system for hours. Then is an important time for people to remember we have callers on the line current letting will get to the first question right now. Good afternoon. We're listening for your (00:15:02) question for the allocation of Troopers out on the roads in other words. How do you determine how many troopers on 35 or 94 in the cities or out of the city? That makes sense? (00:15:18) The basis that we basis that we place the Troopers in the locations that we do are the traffic volume in the accident frequency down here particularly down here in the freeway in the metro area Interstate 35 93449346984. It's we don't have enough people naturally, but we are we're hoping that we can get more people so that we can put them down in this area and I would State why we're basing it on that very that very formula traffic volume and number of accidents in the area. All right, we have other callers on the line and we'll get to the next questioner right now. Good afternoon. We're listening for your (00:16:03) question. Yeah, my name is Peter swamp North st. Paul and some of the older cars the larger luxury type and particularly trucks. It's been proven. They they get better gas mileage. At speeds higher than 55 miles an hour. And the majority of traffic on the road are larger cars and trucks buses this type of thing. Doesn't the 55 mile an hour speed limit actually contribute to fuel waste. (00:16:41) Well, the information that we have received from the Minnesota Motor Transportation Association doesn't bear that out there number, of course, the newer trucks naturally are being constructed so that they're more fuel efficient the the idea that the bigger car traveling at a higher rate of speed is going to give a better gas mileage is something that I'm not that familiar with but it it it would it wouldn't appear to be that way when you consider the wind resistance and the number of times that an individual has to break down. I don't know. If I'm in a position to answer that one and give you an answer that you're going to be satisfied with I can only say this that if you're traveling down the road at 55 miles an hour and these are statistics and you can play with Statistics, but the chances are 32 one that you're not going to die, but at 70 miles an hour their chances are 50/50 that is if you're involved in an accident, actually, I guess the the life-saving factor is is a big item. People that travel it well nowadays. Of course, the the newer automobiles are going to the smaller size Automobiles and it's it's pretty obvious that the small cars when driven at higher than 55 miles an hour definitely are not few lie. They don't have the fuel economy that that perhaps a bigger car does. We have other callers waiting with questions who will get to the next one right now. Good afternoon. You're on the (00:18:15) air that I just wrote down while I was listening the other callers and I wanted to ask him one question here to have you ever arrested anyone or you know of any arrests for anyone driving too slow on the freeway. (00:18:31) Yes. Yes. There have been arrests made for traveling too slow. We have a minimum speed out there 45 miles an hour and if a trooper observed someone traveling at a speed of less than 45, he's he's definitely creating a hazard and I am aware of arrests that have been made out there. Okay, and that caller had another question and there that question will have to peep probably brought in to us because the caller is gone and we have other callers on the line. So we'll get to that one right now. Good afternoon. You're on the air. (00:19:01) Yes. I'm calling from Montevideo Minnesota. My name is April Elvis, and my question has to do with tailgating now. I guess I don't understand what the legalities are, but I myself feel that it is an assault on my life to have someone traveling. So close to me and feet behind me when I'm driving 50 55 miles an hour and especially when there's a line of about five or six. I find it a very life-threatening thing, and I never see tailgating being take at all or pulled over and I would like to hang up now and go to not my radio and listen to your response. Thank you. (00:19:44) Well with regards to tailgating there's a there's a recommended in the driver's manual. It's recommended that you maintain a car length for every 10 miles an hour, but it's not a state law. The reason being that there are certain areas when you're traveling in the freeway system you in the traffic congestion becomes great and because of that way there would be no no way of maintaining that that distance four car lengths at 40 miles an hour five car lengths at 50 miles an hour because unfortunately out here when you mean to attempt to maintain that five car lengths figure someone will slide in there and you no longer have the five car lengths safety area in there. We do have a law that doesn't allow tailgating on trucks trucks must maintain a 500-foot interval that again creates a problem down here in the in the interstate system where they're they're slowing down to merge for example, 35 emerging with 94 35W more Over with 94 but there is a law for trucks. I guess that the the the the concern that you have is that is very valid and it's a it's a courtesy thing that Motors are just going to have to try to you know extend that courtesy to each other out there until there is a tiller should be such a law and it would be a very difficult law to enforce particularly down here in the Metro System. I have a question to put to you that relates to that business of tailgating Colonel the first I want to note that it's 29 minutes after 12 o'clock were talking with Colonel Roger letting the chief of the Minnesota State Patrol Division of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety. And also with me is Maryland Heap or my colleague who spoke with Colonel letting a couple of weeks ago in relation to a story she was doing at that time on compliance with the 55 mile per hour speed limit and other matters relating to the patrol this business of tailgating and they're not being a state statute. Or any other kind of Statute that corresponds to it. I'm just wondering what do you advise minnesotans in the way of turning other people in for example, if we see flagrant abuse on the road, I don't know what that would be a person weaving obviously a some danger to other traffic on the road. What is our responsibility do we take down the license? Number two, we call the local Patrol headquarters and read a description and our name to the person on duty there. If you should witness you should see some unusual driving or some illegal driving if you'll get the license number of the vehicle and notify the state patrol we have down here in the metro area. We have Patrol headquarters at 3800 North of Dunlap. And the number up there is 4825900. If you should notice anything unusual, if you just call us we can dispatch a trooper and notify. Moves of where this location is and what he will immediately go to that area with regards to the responsibility. That's interesting. There's a lot of criticism that has been extended to truckers and probably in many cases rightfully soul, but we have found that the professional truckers out on the road don't like improper driver action any better than the good law-abiding citizen does and interestingly enough large number of truckers have called us F CB radios near rigs in the and they'll call us advised us of the fact that there is perhaps a suspected drunken driver out there or someone traveling on a unusually high rate of speed because they don't want those individuals out there on the road anymore than we do and I think it's a it's a compliment to the professional truckers that that they do take this interest in seeing to it that the roads are safe. And again, I know that there are people that have seen some actions By Truckers that they they frowned upon they've been very disappointed. I guess. It's just like anything else there are professional people. There and and the professionals maintain the the proper image. Unfortunately one non-professional can destroy an image that a lot of them are working their best to maintain we have listeners waiting with questions. So we'll get to the next one right now. Good afternoon Colonel letting is (00:24:12) listening. My name is Don Roberts. I'm from Minneapolis and this relates to your comment about large. The availability of large squad cars are highway patrol cars. I've both raced motorcycles and Automobiles and I just wonder about the Paradox of that statement. Undoubtedly you seen the ad on television for rabbit squad cars. I'm not sure how good they do for the highway patrol but isn't it possible that we've got a mindset problem? And it Highway Patrol could could really use small displacement cars that that are capable of very fast acceleration in high speed. That's my question. (00:25:01) There's a problem with it. And I guess that we're going to be forced to face that issue that you suggest because the availability of the larger larger wheel base Vehicles is just Not going to be there particularly after this year from the information that we've been getting from the automobile manufacturers. So I guess in fact we are going to be operating with with the smaller wheelbase vehicles and and you suggest that it's a mindset one of the things that that we do that other police agencies don't do is that we are our Pursuits generally occur out in the rural areas. Now, I know a lot of them occurred on here because we've got a lot of Troopers down here and if someone chooses to attempt to evade why we're pursuing them with whatever we happen to have at that time, but out in the rural areas the longer wheelbase cars of course are naturally going to give you a little bit of Road ability. We want to make it as safe as we can for our Troopers and still give them the ability to do that job with regards to some of the smaller cars. We are using smaller cars for administrative purposes. We've got some Rambler Conchords and we've got some Chevrolet citations that some of our administrative people are using this time. We have other callers waiting will get to the next question right now. Good afternoon. You're on the air. (00:26:29) I'm come of it was cut off. Okay. Glad you're back with us. (00:26:46) That's a that's an excellent question really except for driver courtesy there the merge sign of the indication of the merge. Of course is that anyone merging onto the main intersection is obligated to to wait until he can merge into that? Ethic and I think you're I think that the question that you asked is just the greatest because every morning I see these things I see very icy courtesies extended and I see Des courtesies out there people being cut off because know where they're going to allow this individual to get in there because the other the other person maybe had a problem up the road getting in himself and it gets right back to just common courtesy amongst the people that operate their automobiles around here. (00:27:44) That's correct. (00:27:46) Yes. It's a courtesy problem when you when you ask the question what I'm looking I'm I'm answering it from the legal aspect of it that there is no legal (00:27:58) requirement. But between a sign on a freeway entrance any (00:28:06) not really the merge sign is an indication that you're merging into a you know on into heavier traffic or into a main thoroughfare where the yield sign is the same, you know that you must the yield sign. In fact says that you must yield to the the traffic that's already out there. (00:28:21) Okay. Next question. I do a lot of driving in my business and I'm safety professionals that has he's an awful lot of poor drivers on the road drivers whom I am almost positive have never taken any taken any drivers examination due to the Rage or whatever you well and I would I would like your opinions on whether or not you feel that more effective drivers examinations would be a thing that to promote safety on the roads here in Minnesota and Reese I've given this a lot of thought and I've worked with my congressman little bit trying to come up with some proposals for legislation to improve both drivers training and Driver evaluation basically because one thing there's like I mentioned before there's a major portion of the drivers on the road Minnesota today who have never had to take a driver's license examination either written or either written or driving and secondly the present driver's license examination system. I believe is relatively ineffective in the in testing a person's ability to drive over the road and drive on the freeway. You may be able to answer the questions correctly on the written examination, but the driver's license examiner seldom if ever allows or is you know evaluates the person's ability to say merge on a freeway like we were just talking about or or correctly change lanes on a freeway and etc, etc. But some like your ideas are your comments on on if you think that better drivers license testing and more often with would help. (00:30:04) Well, I definitely feel a driver's license license testing more often would help is you commented that there are a number of people that are operating out on the public highways that have learned the the good habits or the bad habits that they have strictly through experience because they haven't been required to take a test drivers license division course again, it becomes a Manpower such a Manpower problem for drivers license. They've got to get more people so that they can conduct more of those tests. There are some areas in the state where you've got to make an appointment. You will wait quite a period of time several weeks even a month before you'll be able to take the examination just because they don't have enough manpower to handle it, but I certainly agree with you that That there there should be a more than just one driver's test. The the one that a person takes to get his original driver's license because some of the laws change and and I give you an example the law several years ago said that you must signal your intentions when you when you're going to change course, you shouldn't you may not move either right or left on a highway until you first signal your intentions and then only after giving the appropriate signal if other traffic may be affected. Now the new law says the same thing except that it doesn't require that other traffic has to be affected and I think it's I think the new law is excellent what it's saying is that regardless of whether you are out on the road all alone. It says that if you move right or left that you must signal your intentions before you do so the idea being that there may be someone there that you didn't notice your your thought is that well, he wasn't And see him he must have come at me at a high rate of speed or something of that nature. So I think that there are laws some of the laws that change that I think the people should be updated on that particular one right there. Just just the idea of moving on a highway in in a direction other than a forward movement requires that you put on your signals. You mentioned more effective examinations. Well, that's something that I'm not I'm not that familiar with the examination system that the state of Minnesota has is one of the from from information that I received from people who have taken the test who've committed Minnesota from other states say that Minnesota does have one of the toughest testing requirements that they've experienced in. These are people that have had driver's licenses and several other states. We have plenty of other callers waiting to ask questions of your kernel letting and so I guess we won't wait. We'll go ahead with the next call. Good afternoon. You're on the (00:32:52) air. I'm a former strong advocate of Interested in complying with bad laws and there are more and more bad laws about and I think the 55 mile an hour has been with us. One of these bad laws. You said a while ago that you had 48.3% compliance that 51.7% that are not complying in other words. It's a can you hear me? Yes, I think we can still enjoy 51.7% that are not complying and that sounds to me like a like an unpopular law. I don't like the idea either of the federal government blackmailing the state in the state government complying to the situation and that's exactly what it is. This is not a federal law the state law that exists only because of that our pressure. (00:33:52) Alright that is that your question to the colonel. (00:33:55) That is one statement and a couple of other points. Well, I guess we're going to have to forego the couple of other (00:34:01) points since we have so many other callers waiting to get on (00:34:07) the black male aspect of this Federal. (00:34:10) Do you want to respond to that Colonel lighting? Well, the comment was that we have a 48.3% compliance. Therefore. We have a 51.7 non-compliance, but one other comment is that Ten point nine percent of the people who were non-compliers. We're traveling over 60 miles an hour, which means that 40 Point 8 percent of the people that were non-compliers were traveling between 55 and 60. Unfortunately, there are people well, he might have Crews on their vehicle and you put the cruise at 55 miles an hour and you come over a hill and some of the cruises will the cruise controls will allow the vehicle to increase in speed by say two or three miles an hour when that happens if they should be in an area where this there's a survey being conducted they become non-compliers and because of that why it creates somewhat of a false image of how many people are actually complying with the 55 mile an hour speed limit the national the national highway traffic safety administration is attempting to introduce some legislation introduced a proposal to Congress where bye Anyone traveling at a speed of less than 60 miles an hour is complying with the spirit of the law. And therefore would in fact be be considered as a 55 mile an hour speed complier. I'm not aware of the fact that they've succeeded in getting this accomplished yet, but it's my understanding that they have every reason to believe that they will accomplish it the frustration that you suggested with the 55 mile an hour speed limit. I really don't know how to respond to that because I guess that's an individual thing, but we do find that the majority of the people that are traveling out here you don't we don't find these speeds the high rates of speeds that we used to find right now. We're finding that people traveling at 70 miles violators traveling at 70 miles an hour are unusual. As far as the experience that our state troopers are having with the people out there using the highways so they are Although there's frustration may be in some cases there. There's a lot of compliance we have other callers waiting and we'll get to the next one right now. Good afternoon. Colonel letting is listening for your question. (00:36:32) Yes, good afternoon. Is there any law that prohibits our governs the carrying of truck loads or trailer loads of light material that glows off in the wind and litters of freeways, whether they're hauling it to the to a landfill or we're just moving. I was under the impression that particularly truckloads of material being hauled to landfills for me from a site that's being torn down. And sad are they to be covered well and tied down, you know, there's so much litter and it seems as if an impossible task to keep the freeways and highways clean. (00:37:27) There is a law that says that the truck she'll be so loaded so that none of its load shall shall leaked onto the highway and I guess that's the one that you're referring to and I might suggest that if you if you find that there are if you run into a situation like this, if you'll get the license number of that truck and notify us now a private citizen is not going to let in a lot of cases of private citizens is not going to be able to take the time to appear in court and testify or sign a complaint against an individual and in the case. That's that's our job. That's that's what the taxpayers of the state of Minnesota are paying the state patrol for is to enforce those laws. Now. If we don't witness a violation we can take enforcement action, but your information given to us is going to alert us so that in the future we can perhaps take the enforcement action by our own observation one other thing if you witness I mentioned before that if you witness a violation out on the freeway system and you Or anywhere in the state of Minnesota on any of the highways get the license number down and you give us the information. We don't identify you to the driver of the other vehicle. But we do write a letter to the other to the individual suggesting that his driving habits leave a great deal to be desired and that this information was given to us by a motorist who was concerned about the danger that was created by the driving by the driving that was being done at this particular time. And naturally we're not going to give you that information either as to who that person is. We don't want to individuals getting into conflict about something but we do make a contact with those people through the mail. We think that it's important that those people are the things are brought to their attention. Some people do these things unknowingly other people maybe do it knowingly, but they feel it because there's no one around and by that, I mean no police officer run that they're getting away with it. Your information to us is going to let them know that they didn't in fact get away with it. We have other callers waiting. We'll take the next question or good afternoon. You're on the (00:39:36) air. I am to appreciate that. I normally Drive between 50 and 55 and quite comfortable with it find that it does make for more consideration and more time in your reaction to situations on the highway. So I think that's our definitely a good law as far as Regulation and testing and many of the things you talked about in terms of getting people to drive better. It seems that there are an awful lot of bad drivers on the road and one of the problems seems to be an incredible amount of in consideration. It's an attitude. I think like the men for said while it's a bad law and I'm not going to comply with it. That's kind of an arrogant but I think there are more testing is if not going to do it because people will be on their best behavior during a test. Normally there are things in other states in other places that have been tried. I realized the Manpower that you have is is not enough to do everything and be every place but people have been experimenting with the things like Cameras on the main roads so that you can monitor a road from a central location and also like in New York, they have Auto Inspections, you have to have your car inspected for the minimum requirements of safety like brakes and lights. How do you feel about some of those things? (00:41:28) Well the TV cameras there are a lot of places in the cities that that there are TV cameras that are monitoring the traffic for example, and before I go into that I'd like to make a comment about the but your comment on in consideration and I agree. I hope that it isn't a sign of the times but people in the past have always been in a hurry. It seems that everything has to be done immediately and I don't deny that that we're a fast moving Society but I say that in the sense that there are so many things that have happened. in the last 10 years with the the technology and Society I would like to come up. I appreciate your thought about the in consideration though because I think that if we all became a little more considerate of our fellow human beings we wouldn't have the problems that the one gentleman suggested about the merging onto the freeway system, for example, because the time that it will take to allow that individual to merge and for you to get down till your destination, it isn't that it doesn't amount to more than a couple of seconds and the good feeling that you have by knowing that you helped somebody it's kind of a nice way to start off every day and maybe even end every day regarding TV cameras. There's a there are TV cameras located in the metropolitan area here that monitor the traffic on the different systems, and that's why at certain times of the day, you will notice that it says metered out there when you want to get in you'll have to stop at a stop sign and it's time so that only so much traffic. Can flow into the traffic on the regular A system that is not something that happens regularly. It isn't timed. It's something that is done from a central location and they determined from the amount of traffic out there that they're going to switch from a flashing yellow caution tape thing on your entries to a red and green so that they have the traffic going in there at regulated segments. One of the other concerns about the TV cameras. They tried something down in Iowa where if you're traveling at an excessive rate of speed or whatever speed there's a sign on under a on a bridge overpass. It might light up saying that you are traveling at a speed of 58 miles an hour slow down. Unfortunately the experience so much vandalism to those signs that they had to discontinue their use people that would knowing there was no one around while they were able to Go up and and create a great deal of vandalism so that it cuts rather costly and it's my understanding now that they aren't being used on in the Iowa area. I like the idea that the I don't like the idea of having people feel that they have to be observed at all times because I think we're all for the most part. We're all adults. We don't we don't we can conduct ourselves properly without being under the observation of someone but I do like the idea of the cameras. I think that I think that there's a definite place for I'm particularly and some of the interstate systems out here regarding inspections there there have been bills introduced and we have in the past conducted motor vehicle inspections on a spot basis and we found that And at those times way, we had a great deal of compliance and a great deal of Interest. We would go into a small town just off the highway so that we wouldn't interfere with the regular flow of traffic and then we would regularly direct people in and run them through the the checks that we had and we found people it would when they discovered we were there would come through with her vehicle ask us how long were going to be there so that they get home and get their other car and run that one through also and we would have fix a sticker if they had passed the inspection that we conducted but we don't have the manpower to continue those types of things because although we have the same number of people that we did have our responsibilities of increased a great deal. We have plenty of other callers still waiting and will continue to take questions for Colonel letting just as long as we can it's about seven minutes before one o'clock and we'll be able to continue for about another four minutes or so. Good afternoon Colonel letting is listening. (00:45:49) Good afternoon. My question is whether the law requires properly functioning headlights on an automobile. And if so do either the state patrol or the local police make any effort to enforce that. (00:46:09) One of the problems that we have again goes back to the Manpower aspect but we there is a law that says that the equipment on your vehicle must be must be functioning properly. We have a form that we we write out and give to an individual. Should he be stopped for her for having a headlight out or no tail lights and ask that he had this repair made as quickly as possible. One of the things that people, you know, they have a tendency they'll well, I've got the headlight out and I intend to get this fixed and I hope to get it fixed within the next couple of days if an object should strike that other headlight or if the other headlight should burn out which can happen after all the first one did they don't have any lights at all. And so we try to encourage it. I know that you see a lot of it down here. I do myself if I can I try to bring it to the attention of the person because a lot of people they don't even know that some of the people who don't do a lot of driving or taking an interest in the mechanical aspects. The automobile aren't even aware that they're operating out there with only one headlight on their vehicle will get to the next questioner. Good afternoon. You're on the air. (00:47:21) Policy in the highway patrol if there's been any investigation of the use of effects of caffeine on Highway Patrol officers law enforcement officers in general and if so because some of the material I've seen indicates that after dosage of 3 to 400 milligrams of caffeine, which would be the equivalent of three to four cups of coffee in a four-hour period the Judgment of the person drinking the coffee putting the caffeine and their system can come into question. There are a number of factors irritability a number of other factors that are increased when the person is under the influence of caffeine, and I'm curious if there is a isn't he a departmental policy on that or if there is any effort to investigate that thank you. (00:48:19) There isn't any policy on it. It's an interesting subject though. I'm I'm going to look into it further. Thus far there hasn't been any this this information that you've just given to me is something that I wasn't aware of caffeine deprivation is a very serious matter for me when I'm driving on the road. I need plenty of caffeine just to keep the eyes open sometime we have time for just one more call. I think it will get to that listener right now. Good afternoon Colonel letting is listening. (00:48:51) My question regard is probably in the sensitive area. And that is the drinking driver and you may have discussed it earlier. But I'm informed by the Department of Public Safety to On Any Given weekend. There are 600,000 vehicles on the highway and the evening and the 30,000 of these drivers are legally drunk and they probably on an average week arrest a hundred and fifty and seven are convicted and I'm curious as to why there is such a low conviction on that there that many arrests made. (00:49:26) Well, we have through the ASAP program and we've determined that there are on an ordinary Friday or Saturday evening approximately 20,000 20 to 30 thousand drivers on the road that would test high enough to be convicted of drunken driving charge and that we apprehend approximately 100 of them. One of the problems that we have is that it takes us approximately two-and-a-half to three hours to to book a person who is suspected of drunken driving. There are a number of things that take place in the I could I could discuss this one very very length Ali one of the things is that We have to we make out at least nine separate forms for a typical DWI arrest where an armed robbery or homicide only requires four forms the question arises a why are there so many forms and why can't you combine them because they go to so many different agencies. For example, the the impound there's a there's an implied consent form that goes to motor vehicle. There's a temporary driver's license that form is filled out a copy going to motor vehicle. There are forms of go to the court for pre-sentence investigation. There's so many different things as I said, it's an interesting subject that you brought up and it requires a lot lengthier answer than we've got time for right here. But the only one the only information that you did give me that I wasn't aware of was the conviction rate. I don't have I wasn't aware that the conviction rate was that low. Our figures are I don't have them with me, but it's my recollection that are figures are higher than that. Well, I guess the indication is Colonel letting the program simply going to have to ask you back sometime. There were a lots of callers who didn't get their questions on the air and I think there are many questions including this one you just commented on that would be very interesting. So thanks for joining us today Colonel Roger letting chief of the Minnesota State Patrol Division of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.