LSP urging drivers to slow down as speeding becomes problem on newly expanded I-10

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – The I-10 expansion has been open for a month and already Louisiana State Police have seen an increase in speeding.

The widening of the interstate from four to six lanes between Highland Road to the La. 73 in Prairieville has been beneficial to traffic but not so much on troopers pulling drivers over.

One weekend alone, an estimated 50 tickets were written with some arrests made for drivers who were impaired.

Trooper Taylor Scrantz says that troopers aren’t out to be the bad guys, but want to prevent any potential fatal accidents.

“One of the most frustrating things we deal with as troopers is when we see a preventable crash and an innocent person is killed with the driver doing nothing wrong. They’re not impaired and properly restrained yet they get struck by a drunk driver. It’s very devastating to notify the family of their death when they’re completely innocent in the matter,” Scrantz explains.

Drivers should be aware that troopers will be doing extra enforcement in the area to hopefully cut down on the speeding.

If you see an impaired or reckless driver, you’re asked to dial *LSP(577) and that’ll connect you to the nearest troop station where someone can be dispatched to help.