Group meets to discuss speeding

Drag racers are a problem in many areas, BCSO says

A group of people representing city and county government, law enforcement and operators of area speedways met informally Monday to discuss how to get motorists to cease speeding and drag racing.

City Councilors Klarissa Peña, Trudy Jones and Ken Sanchez agreed it is a problem that affects all parts of the metro area. Peña said it is the No. 1 complaint she gets from her constituents in District 3, the southwestern part of the city.

Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Capt. Broderick Sharp said the racers break down basically into two main groups — those who spontaneously decide to drive fast, and well-organized drag racers who agree to meet at different locations. This group has an advance scout to watch for law enforcement and a follow-up scout when the racers finish and move on to another site.

Sharp said that even when sheriff’s deputies remove the drag racers from sections of roadway in the county where they are known to race, they just wind up someplace else, often in the city. That makes coordination with the Albuquerque Police Department critical, he said.

Sharp said that under county ordinance, anyone arrested for reckless driving — and who already has a prior conviction for reckless driving — is subject to having their vehicle forfeited or seized — a tool that deputies have used in the past, he said.

Charlie Fegan, who operates Performance Driving School and Sandia Speedway, said the problem could be mitigated by educating drivers, particularly people with performance vehicles, about feet-per-second travel velocity and reaction times. The faster people drive, the faster they close the gap on other vehicles on the road. Consequently, neither driver may have enough time to react and stop or get out of the way.

Jones said the root of the problem is drivers simply disregarding the law.

“If we can control speeding, we can control drag racing,” she said.

Several speakers noted that part of the problem is that drivers in the city feel emboldened because they know the Albuquerque Police Department is understaffed and officers spend much of their time responding to calls that are a higher priority than speeding.

Another part of the fix is a comprehensive media campaign on the dangers of speeding and drag racing, said Peña, much like the state has done to raise DWI awareness.

Peña said the Monday meeting was the first of several with stakeholders that will be necessary before a strategy emerges.