AIRWAY HEIGHTS – Several residents tuned in to council’s legislative session Nov. 2 to voice their concerns with drivers mowing down residential West 1st Avenue at high speeds…sometimes, at freeway-level paces.
“We’ve been having numerous individuals come through at 60-plus miles an hour, from Russell (Street) all the way through (to Hunter’s Crossing),” resident Linda DeLong said.
“They’re passing through so fast, that I almost got hit twice coming out of my garage, once coming from my mailbox … they go so fast that we can’t get plate numbers.”
Some neighbors have taken pictures with security cameras of the speeding cars, but due to the high speeds they’ve been unsuccessful in obtaining license plate numbers to turn into law enforcement.
No speed limit signs are presently on this stretch of road.
“We’re missing speed limit signs since that road went through, and we could really use a children at play sign, because there’s a lot of children on this road,” De Long said. “With the traffic being so heavy now, we really need something done.”
Mayor Kevin Richey said new road expansion often causes the city to fall behind on signage and asked City Manager Albert Tripp to look into adding speed limit signs and “children at play” signs to West 1st Avenue.
DeLong requested that the police department do drive-by’s at specific times of the day, noting there is one particularly speedy vehicle that her neighbors have videotaped.
“It’s at a specific time of day they said they could figure out,” DeLong said.
“They are really trying to get some kind of help, because that end has a lot of children that come out to play.”
Councilman Larry Bowman said he knew of many children playing in the area and agreed that an issue was at stake.
“The problem that we have, is there’s a huge area that doesn’t have any houses,” Bowman said.
“Without anything to mitigate, people think it’s a wide-open space, they think they can go all-out down that area…I would agree, emphasis patrols are (necessary).”
Police chief Brad Richmond, who attended the meeting, said he hadn’t heard of the First Avenue issue and requested that concerned residents call the police department and ask for him directly.
“I’d love to know specific times so I can direct patrols to the area so we can focus resources on that for the safety of the children and the other residents of the area,” Richmond said.
Resident Tricia Madison noted the corner of West 1st Avenue and South Lawson Street is where many children play and added many cars blow through the stop sign at high speeds.
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