TRI CITIES, WA -- Flashing lights and sirens are the last thing you want to see in your rear-view mirror. You know that instant sinking feeling in your stomach. Now, after pouring through thousands of records, Action News knows exactly where you're most likely to get a ticket.

"Usually before I see the lights I know I already got it," Mark Duwe said, who got caught by a Washington State trooper going 75 on State Route 240, a 60 mile-an-hour zone.

"(It's) a little nerve-racking," he said. Duwe was in the Tri Cities on a business trip from Seattle but one of thousands caught speeding on SR 240.

"It was our top spot by a large margin in 2009 primarily because of the Blue Bbridge project," Lieutenant Jay Cabezuela said with Washington State Patrol.

"When DOT did their speed survey a couple years ago, this is one of the highest ranking speed areas in the entire state," Washington State trooper Chris Thorson said.

High-traffic plus high speeds equals 24-7 coverage from troopers. They tend to only ticket drivers going at least 10 miles-an-hour or more over the limit. But drivers who do get pulled over get ticketed 58 percent of the time.

"Would you call that a speed trap?" Action News asked Lt. Cabezuela. "I don't think it's a speed trap. If people were going through there and not violating any laws then we wouldn't have any reason to contact them."

Now you know about the freeways, What about the hotspots in Kennewick? Ever heard of West Canal and North Perry? Well, you should."

"I can tell you by personal experience I've seen cars there going as fast as 60 miles-an-hour," Kennewick Police Sergeant Ken Lattin said.

The speed limit on W. Canal is 35 mph.

"If there's ever a time we feel we need to get out and slow drivers down that's one of the first areas we hit," Lattin said.

Kennewick Police wrote 200 tickets at W. Canal and N. Perry in 2009, nearly 100 more than 2008. It made up a whopping 10 percent of all speeding tickets written in Kennewick.

"I'm not surprised. People are coming down a long, straight stretch or coming up a hill and putting their foot on the gas," Laurel Adams said, who's lived on Perry for 30 years.

"Would Canal and Perry be considered a speed trap?" Action News asked Lattin. "A speed trap is actually a technical term. It gets used as slang as a place where 'the cops are and gonna catch ya, but that's just not true."

"I don't mind it at all," Adams continued. "I think it's a good idea. The speed limits are there for our protection."

In Richland, the top spot for speeding ticket is more of a toss up between two spots.

"George Washington Way, it's the number one zone," Richland Police officer Tom Croskrey said.

Richland officers wrote the most tickets in 2009 at George Washington Way and Van Giesen. Almost all drivers were cited in school zones.

"I'm glad they're down there patrolling I really am, because I hate to cross there," Pat Holten said, a homeowner who drives through that intersection all the time.

Since the total tickets tend to reveal only the largest traffic areas, Action News took a closer look at the numbers. We found the street with the most speeding tickets per mile of roadway was Wellsian Way. End to end, Wellsian is only a mile long. But last year, Richland P.D. wrote nearly 160 tickets, again, mostly in school zones.

"Pretty much everyday the cops are in here pulling someone over," Cody Clapper said, owner of the Glass Nook on Wellsian Way. Clapper said officers pull people over into his parking lot every morning.

"I feel bad," he said. "I think it's over a $500 dollar ticket."

Of all tickets, Richland P.D. will give you a warning roughly 70 percent of the time. Just a small 30 percent are issued citations.

So what about the Pasco side? The numbers are probably not a shocker if you live there. Road 68 and I-182 East is the number spot for speeding tickets. Pasco officers wrote roughly 300 in that little area between burden and freeway which amounted to about 10 percent of all tickets in pasco.

Ticketing isn't for kicks or cash. It's for safety. Thanks to their enforcement, State Patrol recorded a nearly 40 percent drop in accidents on the freeways last year. On Canal and Perry in Kennewick, police reported only one accident the whole year.


TICKET MONEY
After all those tickets , we wanted to know, how much money do police officers rake in? Action News broke down the price of a ticket and as it turns out, it's not as much as you might think.

"That's a common misconception," Lt. Cabezuela said. "The State Patrol does not get any revenue from the tickets we write."

Of an average $124 speeding ticket, State Patrol doesn't directly get any money. Instead, about $70 goes back to the county where the ticket was written. In Kennewick, $44 goes back to the city, and in Richland about $23. the state gets the rest of the money. And the cash doesn't all go back to individual police departments; it's split up between them.


SPEEDING HOT SPOTS "HONORABLE MENTIONS":
Freeways: I-182 from SR 240 to SR 395, 395 from Kennewick Ave. To 19th Ave., I-182 from mile post 112 to mile post 121, 395 from mile post 24 to 28

Kennewick: S. Ely and 2nd Ave. (97 tickets), Metaline Ave. & Irving (80), W.10th and Taft (69 tickets)

Richland: North end of GWW from Swift to Horn Rapids Road (279 tickets), South end of GWW from Columbia Point Drive to Swift (156), Columbia Park Trail (88 tickets), Duportail Street between Keene Rd. And Queensgate Drive (74tickets).

Pasco: 14th street, S. 10th Ave between West A and West B streets, Road 44 between Desert Drive and Desert Place, East Lewis.