South San Francisco, CA July 10, 2017 Submitted by SSFPD
On Monday July 10, 2017 traffic officers fanned out across South San Francisco in another one day crackdown looking for speeding drivers. This traffic enforcement saturation patrol was just one of many being completed on various days throughout this year. Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Each saturation patrol consists of specially-trained officers using new state-of-the-art lidar devices to check driver’s speeds. Lidar is a highly-accurate laser device that measures distances down to inches and exact speeds of vehicles. The lidar devices are equipped with special optical sighting systems that can differentiate between vehicles; this allows officers to target the fastest vehicle on a roadway and obtain an exact speed reading.
During the crackdown, officers targeted roadways in the City that are known complaint areas and/or streets that have high injury or fatality traffic collision rates where speed was the primary cause of the accidents. During the crackdown, officers handed out a total of 109 speeding citations. One driver with a suspended license was also cited and his vehicle was towed and impounded.
The drivers issued speeding citations were traveling an average of 15 MPH or higher over the posted speed limit. The goal of these operations is to remind motorists to drive with caution, obey the speed limit, and drive safely. Remember, “Don’t Speed or You’ll be Next”.
If there were a patrol car posted and monitoring the corner of Junipero Serra/Hickey Blvd. right turn lane going to Hickey (toward 280 freeway), they would triple these stats, because rarely, if ever, do cars stop at the very visibly posted STOP sign, when they’re driving from the Target area. Cars making the left turn from Junipero Serra onto Hickey westbound nearly get hit as cars, at full speed, run this STOP.