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Kansas senators hear bill to treat extreme speeding as reckless driving
Summary
A Senate Transportation Committee hearing on SB113 considered classifying drivers who travel 100+ mph or 35+ mph over the limit as reckless drivers; proponents from KDOT and law enforcement cited rising high-speed incidents and safety harms, and the committee plans further work on the bill.
The Senate Transportation Committee heard testimony on Senate Bill 113, which would expand Kansas’s reckless-driving definition to include driving at 100 miles an hour or more, or 35 miles per hour over the posted speed limit.
Adam, a committee staff member, briefed members that the proposal would remove the separate culpable-mental-state requirement in some cases so that those extreme speeds alone would qualify as reckless driving, while the bill would not automatically trigger license revocation solely for that conviction.
Catherine Magana, legislative liaison for the Kansas Department of Transportation, said the measure is about safety. “Speeding has an inverse correlation with safety on our roadways,” she told the committee and cited state data tying speeding to fatal crashes and serious injuries in 2024. She said KDOT would support public education on the change if the law passes.
Ed Klump, speaking for the Kansas Association of Chiefs of Police, the Kansas Sheriffs Association and the Kansas Peace Officers Association, urged passage and described multiple recent crashes at 100+ mph on interstates and local roads. “Speeds at this level are so gross they’re not unintentional,” Klump said, arguing the change would address case-law limits that have prevented speed-alone prosecutions as reckless driving.
Captain Payne of the Kansas Highway Patrol told the committee the agency has seen a marked increase in citations for 100+ mph driving, reporting roughly 1,758 such citations in 2019 and 2,488 in 2025, and said the bill would clarify enforcement under current statutory language. Payne said the bill would not increase misdemeanor penalties but would give courts and officers another tool to address extreme speeding.
Committee members questioned how the change would affect insurance, license actions and officer discretion to arrest; witnesses said reckless-driving convictions can carry broader consequences than a speeding infraction, and that officers retain discretion to issue infractions in appropriate circumstances.
The chair closed the hearing and said the committee intends to work the bill in a near meeting; no committee vote was recorded at this hearing.
