Letter to Editor Jan 9, 2019 - Patrol I-75 Gainesville Sun

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https://www.gainesville.com/opinion/...for-jan-9-2019
Letter to the editor for Jan. 9, 2019

Patrol I-75

I have read the articles and letters regarding traffic on Interstate 75. It’s time for the Florida Highway Patrol to actually patrol the highway. Anyone not impressed at the increased speed, volume of traffic and degree of aggressiveness is not paying attention.

On a recent trip to Atlanta, there was not one FHP trooper seen up to the Florida-Georgia border or down from the border. North of Valdosta, no Georgia Highway Patrol trooper was seen either.

My suggestion: tell AAA to make the entire Alachua County segment of I-75 a “speed trap.” Even with a 5-7 mph buffer, we can: 1) slow traffic down 2) reduce reckless and aggressive driving to an acceptable degree and 3) keep slower traffic out of the middle and left lanes.

Two multi-death accidents have happened in the past few years. How many more deaths are needed?

Steven Kraft, Gainesville

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Write your congressman and tell them they need to hire more Troopers and pay better, otherwise you'll likely won't see many Troopers in that area as they are else where in the counties working other roads.

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There are currently 10 road Troopers assigned to Alachua County for 24/7 road coverage not counting CIU or supervisors.

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On any given day they are on FMLA, sitting at the station posting to Facebook, hitting on some fat toothless dispatcher, in some special unit hiding somewhere (off eves weekends and holidays), or working a fender bender at Wal Mart

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working a fender bender at Wal-Mart

90% This.

FHP has a manpower shortage because the pay is horrible for a state with such a high population. The Troopers that are working are tied up on crashes. Most get burn out and quit when they are overworked or denied their accrued leave. The rest are run off by supervision for legitimate and illegitimate reasons. It 's just too easy for people to walk away from basically a glorified low income job. Hassle, danger, and expectations exceed the value the job holds in the eyes of would be employees.

Florida has 3rd largest population in nation as of 2018 (not including the tourist traffic, which is insane). Raise FHP pay to 3rd highest in nation or just keep running your mouth and accomplishing nothing.

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On any given day they are.... working a fender bender at Wal Mart

Agree. Between working hit and run mailbox crashes, dog crashes, or parking lot fender benders, going to parking violations that are gone when you get there, no one has time to do any real crash prevention.

People act like its a city police force.

Any extra time is spent on the million laughable training videos and tons of paperwork that come along with the antiquated agency.

[Unregistered]

Agree. Between working hit and run mailbox crashes, dog crashes, or parking lot fender benders, going to parking violations that are gone when you get there, no one has time to do any real crash prevention.

People act like its a city police force.

Any extra time is spent on the million laughable training videos and tons of paperwork that come along with the antiquated agency.

Correct! And Col. Spaulding keeps taking people from the road to staff his ridiculous pet projects. BCII gets more and more people. FLAIR is a joke. Keep taking from the road, soon no one will be left.

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Correct! And Col. Spaulding keeps taking people from the road to staff his ridiculous pet projects. BCII gets more and more people. FLAIR is a joke. Keep taking from the road, soon no one will be left.

All Spaulding is concerned about, is taking care of his buddies and friends.

We need a house cleaning, starting with Spaulding.

Governor Desantis needs to clean house.

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all spaulding is concerned about, is taking care of his buddies and friends.

We need a house cleaning, starting with spaulding.

Governor desantis needs to clean house.

plain and simple. Fhp is a dump

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plain and simple. Fhp is a dump

Haters gonna hate.