SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. – Lights flash. Handcuffs click. A driver is placed under arrest — not for a fender-bender or a blown red light, but for going dangerously, excessively fast.
It’s a scene that has played out hundreds of times across Florida in the past year. On July 1, 2025, the state’s “super speeder” law took effect, making it a criminal offense to drive 50 miles per hour or more over the speed limit or exceed 100 mph.
Nearly 1,000 arrests statewide
Data shared with News 6 from the Florida Highway Patrol shows troopers made 967 arrests for dangerous excessive speeding statewide from July 1, 2025, through June 15, 2026. The total number of “super speeders” stopped in Florida in the last year is likely much higher when you factor in arrests made by county sheriffs, municipal police, and other agencies.
Troopers made 390 arrests under statute 316.1922(1)(a) and 583 under 316.1922(1)(b).
Arrests remained steady throughout the year — 514 in 2025 and 453 through mid-June 2026.
A 127 mph stop on SR 417
A week and a half before the law’s one-year anniversary, a Seminole County Sheriff’s Office deputy was running stationary speed enforcement on State Road 417 near Lake Jessup in Oviedo when a dark SUV came flying through — northbound, in a 70 mph zone.
The deputy initially clocked the vehicle at 110 mph using a forward-facing radar antenna, according to an arrest report obtained by News 6. As the SUV approached, its speed increased, and the report noted the confirmed final speed of 127 mph using a rear-facing antenna.
Body camera video captured what followed.
“What in the world are you doing?” the deputy can be heard asking the driver as he approached the vehicle.
“I have to pee so bad. Like, so bad,” the driver replied.
The deputy ordered the driver out of the car.
“Turn around. Hands behind your back.”
As handcuffs clicked into place, the driver’s protests continued — but the deputy didn’t waver.
“You were gonna kill somebody,” he said.
“I have to pee,” the woman said.
“I do not care. There is absolutely no reason for that speed. 127 miles an hour.”
“Like, I’m literally — I know, I understand. I literally, like, I’m about to pee my pants," she said.
The arrest report reveals the driver had two problems beyond an urgent bathroom break. A license plate check revealed the driver’s Florida license had been suspended just four days earlier — on June 15, 2026 — for failing to pay multiple traffic citations.
“I don’t want to go to jail,” the driver said.
“Well, there’s no way about that,” the deputy replied.
Minutes later, the driver tried one more time.
“I just have to go pee really bad.”
“Well, you can go pee at the jail,” the deputy said. “And your car is being towed.”
The driver was arrested on two charges: dangerous excessive speeding under 316.1922(1)(a) and driving with a license suspended for failing to pay multiple traffic citations — a second or subsequent offense.
Our News 6 team has covered cases across central Florida where drivers have given different excuses after they were caught going too fast. A 25-year-old Longwood man clocked driving a Honda Civic at 116 mph on the highway in Lake Mary told the trooper who stopped him he thought he was racing him. After a woman in Orlando was pulled over for speeding and she was asked why she was going so fast, she said, “I’m going to pick up my dog,” according to an arrest report. Another man in Seminole County claimed he was swerving to avoid an animal in the road.
Seminole County cases by the numbers
That stop was one of many in Seminole County within the last year. An review of cases done by the State Attorney’s Office for the 18th Judicial Circuit, which covers both Seminole and Brevard counties, revealed they’ve handled a combined 415 cases — 177 in Seminole, 238 in Brevard.
Of those, 256 cases have been closed and 156 remain open.
Most drivers aren’t fighting the charges
News 6 learned from the State Attorney’s Office analysis that the overwhelming majority of defendants chose not to fight the charges in court. Of the 256 closed cases, 223 defendants pleaded with their cases resolved “as charged” for dangerous excessive speeding. Not a single defendant went to trial.
64 of those defendants were adjudicated guilty. Another 159 had adjudication withheld by judges — meaning a formal guilty conviction was not entered — typically in exchange for paying fines and completing a state-mandated driving course. 28 others pleaded to lesser charges but still faced fines and the course. Only 5 cases were dropped by prosecutors for insufficient evidence.
Seminole County defense attorney Kevin Pitts has represented some of the drivers caught under the new law.
“It’s just dramatically different from what we’ve typically had happen when you get pulled over for speeding,” Pitts said.
The cost of getting caught
The financial consequences start the moment the handcuffs go on. Defendants pay to bond out of jail, hire an attorney and have their car towed — before they ever set foot in a courtroom.
“Most of the time we’re seeing fines. You know, obviously record stuff like that can have an impact. Jail definitely is a possibility,” Pitts said.
A review of about 30 cases by the State Attorney’s Office found that defendants consistently received the maximum fine of $500 for first-time offenders, plus more than $300 in court costs.
Most were also ordered to complete the Florida Advanced Driver Improvement Course — a 12-hour online program that focuses on psychology, behavior modification and risk management. Completing it does not dismiss citations or remove points from a driver’s record.
Pitts says some prosecutors are pushing back on negotiations.
“We do get some resistance in some counties, where they want to keep it a misdemeanor,” he said.
And taking one of these cases to trial? Pitts says that’s a tough sell.
“They have to show some level of dangerousness, but it’s not something you’re real excited to take to a jury and say your client was going 110 on the interstate. Those individuals are going to be driving on the same roads,” he said.
Pitts says it isn’t just the fine that stings — it’s everything that comes with an arrest..
“That’s where the big deterrent to me is, is just the formality,” he said. “It’s one thing to get a ticket, and you show up 10 minutes late to wherever you’re trying to go. But, it’s a whole different thing when you can realistically be taken to jail that night or that afternoon.”