The St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Office is targeting drivers who are speeding on rural roads.
Deputes are using speed trailers to track down fast drivers and locate areas deputies should be monitoring.
The trailers have been up for only about a month, however, the sheriff says they’re already making a difference.
The speed limit on Meche Road in Arnaudville is 35 miles an hour. It’s a speed limit neighbors say, drivers ignore.
“I know people are going at least 50 to 60mph, if not more,” resident Holly Aucoin said.
That concerns Aucoin.
The road runs right behind Beau Chene High School and she fears for students who drive and walk along the road.
“A child might get hit one day and I’d hate to see that happen right in front of my yard,” Aucoin said. “It just takes one time for one child or one person to get hit.”
That’s why speed trailers are going up in in the parish. The sheriff’s department has caught people going up to a 100 mph in some areas.
“What happens is we get the data printed out,” Sheriff Bobby Guidroz said. “There’s a computer on the trailer. It give us an idea on where to put more boots on the ground.”
A deputy will be sent to areas where drivers are speeding-and issue tickets to anyone caught speeding.
“We have more than 960 square miles of parish roads here and since they’ve almost all been blacked top, people have been speeding,” Guidroz said.
The department has issued more than 100 tickets in the last 2 weeks.
The sheriff’s office will also present their data to the parish government to see what changes, as far as speed limits and speed bumps can be placed.
