Wytheville, Virginia Speed Traps

There is a large speeding ticket racket taking place from Wythe County until you pretty much enter North Carolina. I travel to NC around once a year. I was caught speeding in Wytheville on I-81S years ago. Numerous troopers were on both sides of the road picking people off left and right with their RADAR. A year later I drove through and again they were on both sides of I-81 in practically the same area. Another year later and they moved the operation a bit further down I-81S to Smyth County. I was pulled over while travelling approximately 65-70MPH in the right lane behind a tractor trailer with other cars directly behind me and also passing me. I am almost 100% certain that this was due to my out of state plate and appearance of my vehicle (primered).

Looking at the Trooper’s history for speeding tickets over a period of several months, nearly 70% of all the speeding tickets he issued were to out of state drivers. A decent portion of all the tickets he issued were all for the same speed, 80/70. Out of all who were issued an 80/70 ticket, more than 75% were from out of state.

This appears to be a clear case of profiling out of state drivers and giving them the same bogus tickets for 10MPH to try and generate easy revenue. You can view a summary of this data here: http://fightghs.com/RDCollins-ProfilingTickets.pdf

TROOPER SAID I WAS GOING 79 IN A 65, I HAD THE CRUSE ON AT 70 PASSED A SEMI GOING UP A HILL, HE SAID HE GOT ME AS HE WAS TRAVELING NORTH BOUND AS I PASSED THE SEMI, ONLY VEHICLES ON THE HIGHWAY WERE ME AND THE SEMI, THREE TIMES HE TOLD ME WHAT A NICE VEHICLE MY BUICK WAS AND WHERE WAS I GOING IN MY OUT OF STATE PLATES. TOTALLY WRONG I DO NOT BELIEVE I WAS GOING OVER 72. I HAVE RECEIVED THREE LETTERS FROM VARIOUS ATTORNEY’S WANTING TO HELP WITH MY TICKET. TOTAL OUT OF STATE SCAM IN MY OPINION, ESPECIALLY AFTER COMING HOME AND FINDING THIS WEB SITE, WISH I HAD SEEN IT BEFORE I HAD TO TRAVEL, I’LL AVOID VA IN THE FUTURE AND TELL EVERYONE ELSE TO AVOID THIS AREA ALSO.

Typically have a spotter vehicle in center or behind guardrail checking speed and another vehicle ahead waiting to pull vehicles over.

This trap is on the south bound lane of I-77 right before you get to the Bland exit 52. You’ll go up a big hill headed south coming from the Bastian exit. and the trap is as you begin going down the hill. He sits behind a guardrail on the right hand side of the road. I’m pretty sure he can spot you speeding if you’re speeding when you crest the top of the hill so slow down before then. I live in Wythe Co and have to drive every day to work with tons of speeding tractor trailers but hardly ever see them pulled over. The cops here target out of state cars.

Wytheville VA local police in teams of two cars hide in places that cannot be seen until they are passed along I-81 in the vicinity southwest of the I-77 intersection, especially in early evenings, and ticket I-81 drivers moving at 10 mph over the posted limit on I-81 (happened to me heading southwest along I-81 about an hour after dark).