US states push for speed-limiting devices on the cars of dangerous
drivers
[May 05, 2025]
By JEFF McMURRAY
A teenager who admitted being “addicted to speed” behind the wheel had
totaled two other cars in the year before he slammed into a minivan at
112 mph (180 kph) in a Seattle suburb, killing the driver and three of
the five children she was transporting for a homeschool co-op.
After sentencing Chase Daniel Jones last month to more than 17 years in
prison, the judge tacked on a novel condition should he drive again: His
vehicle must be equipped with a device that prevents accelerating far
beyond the speed limit.
Virginia this year became the first state to give its judges such a tool
to deal with the most dangerous drivers on the road. Washington, D.C.,
already is using it and similar measures await governors' signatures in
Washington state and Georgia. New York and California also could soon
tap the GPS-based technology to help combat a recent national spike in
traffic deaths.
“It's a horror no one should have to experience,” said Amy Cohen, who
founded the victims' advocacy group Families for Safe Streets after her
12-year-old son, Sammy Cohen Eckstein, was killed by a speeding driver
in front of their New York home more than a decade ago.
Turning tragedy into activism
Andrea Hudson, 38, the minivan driver who was killed when Jones ran a
red light, was building a backyard greenhouse with her husband to help
educate several kids who shuttle between homes during the school day,
her father, Ted Smith, said.
Also killed in the March 2024 crash near Hudson's home in Renton,
Washington, were Boyd “Buster” Brown and Eloise Wilcoxson, both 12, and
Matilda Wilcoxson, 13. Hudson's two children were sitting on the
passenger side and survived, but they spent weeks in a hospital.
“You always hear of these horrific accidents, and it’s always far away,
you don’t know anybody. But all of a sudden, that’s my daughter," Smith
said. “This guy did not swerve or brake. And it was just a missile.”
Smith knew Washington state Rep. Mari Leavitt, who reached out to offer
condolences and tell him she was sponsoring legislation to mandate
intelligent speed assistance devices as a condition for habitual
speeders to get back their suspended licenses.
Leavitt predicts it will have an even more powerful impact than revoking
driving privileges, citing studies showing around three-quarters of
people who lose their licenses get behind a wheel anyway.
Between 2019 and 2024, the state saw a 200% increase in drivers cited
for going at least 50 mph (80 kph) over the speed limit, according to
the Washington Traffic Safety Commission.
“I guess I don’t understand why someone is compelled to want to drive
that fast,” Leavitt said. “But if they choose to drive that fast with
the speed limiter, they can’t. It's going to stop them in their tracks.”
The measure, which Washington legislators passed last month and
Democratic Gov. Bob Ferguson is expected to soon sign, is called the
BEAM Act, using the first letters of the names of the four victims:
Buster, Eloise, Andrea and Matilda.
Because Jones, 19, didn't receive a speeding ticket in his two previous
crashes, he likely wouldn't have been required to use the speed-limiter
ahead of the fatal one. And because it could be 2029 before the law
takes effect, the judge's requirement at sentencing only applies to his
time on probation after being released from prison, Smith said.
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Flowers line a memorial in Renton, Wash., April 2, 2024, near where
a speeding motorist crashed into a minivan, killing four people and
seriously injuring two. (Ellen M. Banner/The Seattle Times via AP)
Evolution of a safety tool
Competing tech companies that joined forces to lobby for ignition
interlock requirements for drunken drivers have been working in
unison again the last few years to pitch intelligent speed
assistance.
Brandy Nannini, chief government affairs officer at one
manufacturer, Grapevine, Texas-based Smart Start, said fleet
vehicles including school buses in the nation's capital have been
trying it out for years.
But it took a lot of refinement before the GPS technology could
instantly recognize speed limit changes and compel vehicles with the
devices installed to adjust accordingly.
“We've got a lot more satellites in the sky now,” said Ken Denton, a
retired police officer who is the chief compliance officer at
Cincinnati-based LifeSafer, part of the coalition of companies.
When court-mandated, the devices would prevent cars from exceeding
speed limits or whatever threshold regulators set. An override
button allows speeding in emergencies, but states can decide whether
to activate it and authorities would be alerted any time the button
is pushed.
A more passive version, which beeps to alert drivers when they are
going too fast, is required for new cars in the European Union.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a similar proposal last year,
explaining vehicle safety requirements are set by the federal
government and he was concerned a patchwork of state laws could stir
confusion.
Parents take up the cause
Before Del. Patrick Hope agreed to sponsor the proposal in the
Virginia Legislature, he tried out the device in Nannini's car,
which was calibrated to not go more than 9 mph (14 kph) over the
speed limit.
“That was my first question: Is it safe?” Hope said.
Not only did he come away convinced it was safe, Hope is now
pondering whether to install it on the cars of his three children,
all of whom are new drivers.
For those mandated by a court, the price could be hefty: $4 per day
and a $100 installation fee. The fee would be reduced for low-income
offenders.
Cohen with Families for Safe Streets, which provides support
services to the loved ones of crash victims, knows firsthand the
kind of impact slowing down speeders can make. A year after her son
was struck and killed in front of their New York apartment, another
boy was injured in the same spot.
By then, the road's speed limit had been lowered.
“That boy lived when he was hit, and mine did not,” she said. "When
you are going a few miles slower, there's more time to stop. And
when you hit somebody, it's much less likely to be deadly.”
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