Proposed bill would require 'speed limiter' devices for reckless drivers in Wisconsin

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) - A proposed bill would require some reckless drivers to have a speed limiter device in their car for a year. 

Drivers that are convicted of a second reckless driving violation in a five-year period where the violations involve going at least 20 mph over the speed limit, would be required to have the device in their car for a year. 

“People are speeding way too much and this is not just a one or two people problem it’s like one or two people on every commute,” State Senator Chris Larson said. 

The devices work with GPS to detect speed limits and can limit the engine power and make it hard for the driver to accelerate. 

“It’s not just the person who's behind the wheel, who is speeding, who is harmed in this, it's everyone else who is just trying to exist,” Larson said. 

Dana C. Whitlow has been living in Milwaukee since 1960 and has spent decades driving in Wisconsin. 

“I’m 65, I was born here and it’s nothing like it used to be when I was 16 driving nice and easy and smooth, now the younger people that got these drivers licenses they just think the law doesn't apply to them,” Whitlow said. 

Whitlow was driving his 1975 Cadillac on Wednesday afternoon, Oct. 29, one of his vintage cars that he’s hesitant to drive with all the reckless driving in town. 

“People go around and see it and get mad because I drive the speed limit with it,” Whitlow said. “They want to speed around me and come close to hitting me and it makes me very nervous to drive it.”

CBS 58 asked Whitlow on Wednesday if he thinks the speed limiter devices could help with reckless driving. 

“Maybe but that’s probably just like when they put that thing in the drunken drivers' cars, they blow in there where the car won’t start if they are intoxicated, but when they get someone else to blow in there it’s questionable,” Whitlow said. “I pray that it works, yeah.”