A 24-year-old Jacksonville man is facing a felony charge after deputies said he drove 117 mph in a 65-mph zone on I-295 on Sunday morning with a child riding in the car. Jacksonville Sheriff's Office deputies arrested him on charges of operating a motor vehicle at 100 mph or more and neglect of a child without great bodily harm.
How Deputies Tracked the Speeding BMW on I-295
The stop began when deputies saw a white 2024 BMW X2 merging onto southbound I-295 near N. Main Street and changing lanes repeatedly while passing other traffic, according to WJXT News4JAX. An officer recorded the SUV traveling 117 mph near the Duval Road exit, and a closer radar reading and pacing confirmed the vehicle's speed was about 112 mph.
The driver eventually exited onto Lem Turner Road, where he was taken into custody at about 8:40 a.m., the report states. He was transported to the pretrial detention facility for booking, and a third party later retrieved the BMW from the scene. The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office also routed a copy of the arrest report to the Florida Department of Children and Families.
New Criminal Charges Under Florida's 'Super-Speeder' Law
Operating a motor vehicle at 100 mph or more is classified as a second-degree misdemeanor under Florida law. Before House Bill 351 took effect on July 1, 2025, that kind of extreme speeding on Florida interstates was typically handled as a civil infraction rather than a criminal charge unless officers could establish reckless driving, according to the Law Office of James P. Kelly, P.A. Under Florida Statute § 316.1922, driving 50 or more mph over the posted limit now triggers a mandatory court appearance.
A first-offense conviction under that statute carries up to 30 days in jail and a $500 fine, per Landsman Law. Repeat convictions within five years raise the potential jail time to 90 days and require a six- to 12-month license revocation. Separately, Florida Statute § 318.14(13) imposes a mandatory civil fine starting at $1,000 for exceeding a posted limit by 50 mph or more, a penalty that stacks on top of any criminal case, according to a summary of the statute.
Felony Neglect Charge Raises the Stakes
The child neglect charge carries far steeper exposure than the speeding count alone. Neglect of a child without great bodily harm is a third-degree felony in Florida, punishable by up to five years in state prison and a $5,000 fine, according to the Tison Law Group. Under Florida law, that charge applies when a caregiver's failure to provide necessary supervision creates a substantial risk of physical harm to a minor.
It remains unclear how old the child in the BMW was or how the child was related to the driver. Whether the Florida Department of Children and Families has opened a formal protective investigation has not been disclosed, and it's also unknown whether the State Attorney's Office intends to pursue jail time under the new super-speeder framework.
Part of a Wider Crackdown on Triple-Digit Drivers
State lawmakers pushed for the tougher statute after excessive speeding contributed to 16,236 crashes and 169 deaths on Florida roads in 2023, according to a Florida House of Representatives committee review, which noted that speeds above 100 mph drastically cut a driver's reaction time. That statistic helped drive the shift from civil citations to criminal bookings for the most extreme speeders.
Locally, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office has leaned on the new law through targeted "Wolfpack" enforcement sweeps on Duval County corridors, using radar pacing, lidar and dedicated patrol units to pull over aggressive drivers, per a department video. Weeks earlier, deputies arrested a Jacksonville woman clocked at speeds up to 130 mph on the same I-295 loop, according to Eye In The Sky News - Polk County.
An off-duty Flagler County sheriff's deputy made a similar arrest on I-95 near Palm Coast this week, pulling over a driver going 125 mph, as Hoodline reported. The stretch of I-295 involved in Sunday's arrest has also seen tragedy this year: a Jacksonville mother and her 3-year-old son were killed in July when their vehicle struck a tree and caught fire near the Pulaski Road exit, as Hoodline detailed.
