Tickets Rise Along With Flood

Traffic tickets in Bingham County have skyrocketed since flooding along the Snake River closed Interstate 15 two weeks ago, forcing motorists onto U.S. Highway 91 and county roads.

More than 360 tickets - most for speeding on U.S. 91 - have been written by officers from the Idaho State Police, Bingham County Sheriff’s Department and the city police departments of Blackfoot, Firth and Shelley.

That is almost twice as many as were issued during the corresponding two-week period in 1996 and 140 more than 1995, according to Bingham County Magistrate Court records.

Interstate 15 was closed from south of Blackfoot to Shelley on June 13, forcing some 14,000 cars that normally use that stretch of highway each day to use the detour along U.S. 91.