MILWAUKEE — Two new reports confirm what many of us already suspected: speeding drivers are claiming lives in Milwaukee more than anywhere in the country.
When it comes to Wisconsin, those deaths are happening at a higher rate in Milwaukee County than in the rest of the state.
"Usually people here are going fast just to go fast," said driver Jeffery Jackson.
"Like crazy reckless. They be scaring me all the time," Daniel Harris stated.
"I wish that these drivers in Milwaukee would be more attentive and slow down," Jaime Walls added.
"You got to realize that you could put other people's lives at risk," Allen Ortega replied.
"I'm fed up we can't keep living like this," Drew Jefferson stressed.
Business litigation and personal injury lawyers with Heninger Garrison Davis released a study that used data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. It found that between 2017-2021 more than 54 percent of fatal crashes in Milwaukee involved speeding. Out of 106 cities where at least 100 deadly collisions occurred, Milwaukee came out on top.
In another report, the Wisconsin Policy Forum found that from 2002 to 2022 the number of speeding-involved crash deaths in Milwaukee County grew from 15 to 47, a 213 percent increase. In all of the other counties that number dropped 55 percent.
"It's just recurring, and it's just devastating to see day-to-day that speed is just always a factor in these deaths," Walls said.
Walls is in the middle of organizing a memorial for her nephew Michael Captain. Mikey, who was known for his humor and caring personality, died last weekend when police say the car he was riding in sped through a red light and slammed into a bus at 35th Street and Wisconsin Avenue.
The driver was arrested.
"Something else has to be done because these kids, even these adults, they're just speeding too fast," Wall pressed.
Jeffery Jackson appreciates recent street engineering efforts to curb reckless driving in Milwaukee but says he still regularly pulls over to get away from speeding cars.
"You're killing people. Slow down," Jackson stated.
Whether it is education or policy changes people tell TMJ4 that they want to see more efforts to get a handle on the drivers going too fast.
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