SPEED DEMONS

DOZENS GET TICKETS IN CRACKDOWN ON DANGEROUS TOWNSHIP LINE ROAD

UPPER DARBY » A speed enforcement detail on a stretch of Township Line Road (U.S. Route 1) in Upper Darby Monday morning was used as a cautionary and preventive measure for speeding along the heavily traveled state road.

“Number one, school is starting, please slow down. Number two, we have to have another push for (speed) radar,” said state Rep. Jamie Santora, R-163 of Upper Darby.

With a state trooper in a marked vehicle tracking speed with his radar gun by the intersection of State and Township Line roads, a number of Upper Darby officers were on hand a few blocks north on Township Line ready to pull over the vehicles that were clocked going at least 50 miles per hour in a zone marked 35.

In over two hours there were 24 tickets issued for people driving over 50 mph, according to Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood. He said the enforcement area would have continued longer but road work in the area cut the operation short.

If it weren’t for the state police’s involvement, those speeders during the morning commute may not have been caught due to state law that forbids any police department other than the state police to use radar for identifying speeders.

Ever since two people were killed within 14 hours in separate speed-related accidents on Township Line in September 2016, Santora, who has a legislative office on the road and lives on a side street off Township Line, has been working to slow traffic down. First, he got help with a $1.5 million grant for traffic calming initiatives that included lanesize reductions and four electronic radar speed limit signs.

That work was completed in November and has yielded positive results, noticeably no traffic deaths in almost two years.

“On average, traffic is moving about 10 miles per hour slower, but we’re still over the speed limit by 7 or 8 mph,” he said on data compiled by the radar speed limit signs on Township Line Road. That data was compared to a study conducted before the signs were posted.

Even with this good news, he wants another tool that can be used along the road and on all other municipal roads in the commonwealth: radar guns.

“We give them bulletproof vests, all of those state-of-the-art computer systems: this is one tool that we do not give police and there are accidents that hurt people,” said Santora.

According to PennDOT, speed-related fatalities have trended down since 2012 to 2017 from 371 to 304. Speeding was a factor in 31,000 crashes from 122,000 reportable traffic crashes in 2017.

Pennsylvania is reported to be the only state in the country where municipal police departments may not use radar for speed detection. Instead, they are

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KEVIN TUSTIN – DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA State trooper uses radar to monitor traffic on Township Line Road in Upper Darby Monday.

New electronic signs monitor the speed of drivers on Township Line Road in Upper Darby.

KEVIN TUSTIN - DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA Upper Darby Police Superintendent Micahel Chitwood, right, with state Rep. Jamie Santora, R-163 of Upper Darby, during Monday’s speed detail along Township Line Road. Both are advocating for radar use by municipal police departments to identify speeding drivers.

KEVIN TUSTIN - DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA This electronic speed limit radar sign shows a car driving 36 miles per hour on northbound Township Line Road in Drexel Hill. A “slow down” sign will flash under the speed limit when drivers are going over the limit.

KEVIN TUSTIN - DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA A marked Pennsylvania State Police car on Township Line Road was used Monday for radar use to identify speeding drivers during the morning commute. A state trooper clocked 24 drivers driving 50 miles per hour using his radar gun, all of whom were issued citations by Upper Darby police.