As Mantua speed trap bill moves forward, local officials fear repercussions
Mantua officials and residents are baffled and dismayed by Senate Bill 100, which would limit the amount of revenue a city could collect from traffic fines to 25 percent of the city’s general fund. Any additional revenue would be given to the state.
“It’s our position that law abiding citizens shouldn’t have to subsidize those who chose or neglect to obey the law,” said Mike Johnson, the Mantua city mayor and police chief — and the man often seen writing tickets to motorists on the stretch of Highway 89 that passes through his town. “We don’t feel like we’ve done anything amoral or unethical or illegal.”
Sen. Lyle Hillyard, who proposed the bill, said he would like to see the city enforcing its own 25 mph speed limit in town than over-enforcing the road that runs by it.
Carson Ash disagres. Now as resident of Hillyard's district, which includes Cache County, Ash grew up in Mantua, a town of about 700 residents on the most eastern peninsula of Box Elder County. He recalled a childhood seeing then-chief of police Jim Jones patrolling his neighborhood.
“I constantly saw him driving around town,” Ash said. “In the summers he would drive by while I was playing basketball.”
Ash said a lot has changed since he was a kid. Jones is retired and his part-time police officer, Johnson, took over his position and now employs several part-time police officers. But what hasn’t changed, Ash said, is the importance of Mantua’s enforcement of the the speed limit along the stretch of highway that cuts through the city.
The stretch has become infamous to many Utahns as the Mantua speed trap, a nickname which officials and Ash said is outright wrong.
“In no shape or form would I describe it as a speed trap,” Ash said. “It’s 60 from Brigham to Nibley.”
Hillyard’s bill would significantly decrease the town’s funding. Hillyard said Mantua supports 39 percent of its general fund with speeding fines.
“I don’t like to give policemen or our courts the incentives to generate money,” Hillyard said. “The overwhelming response to the bill has been do it, do it, do it.”
Ash said that while the town does generate money, it is used to help everyone who drives the canyon.
“It is 100 percent a safety concern,” Ash said, noting the recent death of a USU student on Highway 89 near Mantua. "Police presence at that moment would have saved a life. Maybe he’d be here alive today.”
On Dec. 30, in Sardine Canyon near milepost five, Utah State University student Joshua Diamond, 23, was killed in a head-on collision with a semi-truck and two others were injured. Authorities said Diamond may have been driving too fast for the canyon’s road conditions
“What most people don’t realize, without living in the town, is we have a voluntary first responder team and fire department,” Ash said.
The chief of the Mantua Fire Department, Dave Derricott, and his whole team are all volunteers. Derricott said they respond 24/7 and do all of their trainings wage free by their own will and choice.
A portion of the revenue the small town receives from the issuance of speeding tickets funds the municipal’s equipment and dedicated emergency phone line that runs from Brigham City up the canyon. According to Derricott, the small crew covers from the mouth of the canyon up to the summit, including the town and the popular off-road areas that surrounds it.
“I’d like to ask him to put a price on his loved ones’ lives,” Derricott said in response to Hillyard’s bill.
Derricott said the department’s response time is three to four minutes, a 10 to 15 minute jumpstart on Brigham.
Brigham City fire chief Joseph Bach agreed time can often be the difference between life and death. Bach said the work the Mantua Fire Department does is “absolutely important,” adding his department fully supports the city’s heavy enforcement of the area.
“They need to enforce the speed limits; it’s a dangerous area,” Bach said. “That canyon is known for taking people's lives.”
According to Johnson, when there is an increase in speeding there is an increase in property damage and injuries. He said his heavy-handed enforcement of those speeds has led to greater safety for all of Cache County.
“We have had a significant contribution to the safety of the canyon,” Johnson said. “We’ve stopped DUIs and slowed the average speed.”
Johnson said the highway patrol has at most three troopers working at once.
“We provide extra visibility and enforcement here, and I’ve heard many thanks from the highway patrol,” Johnson said.
“If that’s what they wanted, I should hire 200 highway patrol to sit at the bottom of every hill, I’m sure they’d pick up some people,” Hillyard said in response to Johnson’s comment. “I know the highway patrol is not opposing my bill.”
Johnson and his department have pulled over six people for DUIs since December.
“If that doesn’t impact safety, I don’t know what does,” Johnson said.
Johnson also said since November the department has issued 220 speeding tickets, none of which were written below the speed of 70. Thirty eight of the tickets went to people driving over 80 mph. And according to Johnson, of those 220 tickets, only eight were written for the driver's recorded speed. The vast majority were written on a lower bracket of the ticketing system.
Johnson denies the notion his department strictly tries to increase the town’s revenue.
Johnson said his department’s methods are not only preventative but help to fund its emergency efforts. He said the city’s response to the canyon and its recreational areas is a great resource for Cache County residents who drive the road and the outsiders who use their mountains for off-roading.
According to Johnson, those are benefits Hillyard isn’t considering. Johnson said Hillyard has never reached out to him about his concerns, and went ahead with a bill that would affect Mantua’s aging population as the residents’ fixed incomes would have to foot the costs.
Ash had the same concerns.
“It would be ridiculous to cause a commotion because the whole valley is kept safe by the people of Mantua,” Ash said. “No one wants the funding to be taken away. Heaven forbid but what if Sen. Hillyard or his family or his constituents were driving through the canyon and caused an accident and Brigham has to respond, because the very funding he took away could save his life.”
The bill passed, with full support, through the Senate Transportation and Public Utilities and Technology Committee on Feb. 1 and is headed to the senate’s second reading calendar.