ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — After a weekend that saw the arrests of two drivers pulled over for speeding in excess of 100 mph on the Gandy Bridge, officers continued their patrols to crack down on speeders on the stretch of a road notorious for lead foots and illegal racing.
“I've been here for 20 years and it's always been an issue,” St. Petersburg Police Department Traffic Sergeant Michael Schade said. “It's an area that we work pretty much every day of the week. So far this year, we've written over 1,200 speeding tickets on Gandy alone”
10 Tampa Bay's Aaron Parseghian rode along with Schade and a pair of officers in unmarked patrol cars, monitoring traffic on Gandy on Monday.
In just a few minutes, they observed and pulled over a few cars that were traveling more than 20 mph over the speed limit.
St. Pete, Tampa, Hillsborough and Florida Highway Patrol all have jurisdiction over parts of the Gandy bridge where dashcam videos of drivers racing others or just racing home are unfortunately common.
“We’re not talking about 10 or 15 [mph over the limit]. We're talking 30, 40 over the speed limit," Schade said. "When that happens, it creates such a significant danger to the public."
That’s why many departments are dedicating more time and even switching up tactics to catch reckless drivers in the act, with the goal of preventing deadly crashes.
Schade says his department is working in conjunction with others, doing daily patrols on Gandy and using unmarked vehicles and motorcycles to observe speeding.
“We're not out there to try to hammer people, we're trying to keep the city safe," he added. "The big thing is people really need to slow down."
Tampa Bay law enforcement agencies have also been working together to crack down on street racing, an effort this month spearheaded by the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office that led to 10 arrests. Nearly 70 people were arrested during a crackdown in Pinellas County last spring.