TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — The Tucson Police Department is working to prevent street racing hotspots around town.
According to TPD, these are the current hotspots they are keeping an eye on:
- Irvington Road and I-19
- Irvington Road and 12th Avenue
- Nogales Highway and Drexel Road
- Raytheon Parkway and Aerospace Parkway
- Valencia Road and Kolb Road
Last year TPD had a grant from the Governor's Office of Highway Safety specifically for street racing prevention. That funding helped with extra patrols but has now come to an end, according to TPD.
TPD is working with the Pima County Sheriffs' Department to conduct joint street racing deployments.
Racers will often take up entire areas of a road making it dangerous for other drivers. TPD says that if you see street racers the best thing to do is to avoid the area.
Many of the time these racers are going over 80mph on city roads and that can lead to more fatal collisions, according to TPD. If you do get any information about the cars involved, TPD asks that you share the information with them.
Vehicles. that are street racing now get impounded following an ordinance that was amended by the Tucson City Council.
The Tucson Department of Transportation and Mobility is limited in what they can do structurally to slow down vehicles.
"Certain traffic calming features cannot be implemented on these major roadways, such as speed humps, because it doesn't fit design standards," Erica Frazelle, a public information officer with the department said. "We also have to allow public safety vehicles to move freely on these roadways when it's necessary."
Street racers don't just cause a danger to the public on the roads, but also a nuisance to residents in the area.
"Some of us get very grumpy when we get woken up at like 3AM," Sylvia Nyarko said. "It messes up our day. So, when you are deciding to do these things, I just hope people will think about others when they decide to do things like that."
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