Fast drivers causing problems on Harden Parkway in Salinas
About 10,000 cars drive on Harden Parkway every day to get to North Main Street. It’s a one mile stretch of road with a park on one end and a large shopping mall on the other. Police said that when the businesses close,it isa well-known place from drag racers.
“Its is some place that we have seen people who are involved in illegal street racing go out and try to use it to either engage in races or test…how fast their vehicle can go,” said Salinas police Sgt. Dana Cornelison.
On Tuesday night, Harden Parkway was shut down for hours after a three-car crash sent multiple people to the hospital. Witnesses told police two of the cars involved were racing. There were no deaths.
“I can think back several years where there was a fatality from a crash that was involving a street race that happened just one intersection away from where last night’s collision happened,” said Cornelison.
So can the city do anything to try and prevent street racing? City traffic planner James Serrano said there are already 35 mph speed limit signs posted.
“When the results of collisions are reckless driving and things like that there’s really no tool in our arsenal to be able to solve that problem,”Serrano said.
Still, Serrano said when accidents like the one Tuesday night happen, he and a team will review the road to see if anything else could help.
“In the end there’s not really much we can do in terms of signing or stripping streets when people chose to ignore the rules of the road,” said Serrano.