Seaside drivers beware – greater chances of citation

UPDATE: If you’re driving over the speed limit in Seaside, police said you’ll most likely get a traffic ticket.

“Everyone that’s out on patrol has been directed to enforce traffic much more aggressively than they have been,” said Seaside Police Commander Nick Borges.

Seaside police said speeding drivers are on their radar because traffic crashes have gone up over the last few years.

“Here there’s like more stores, more restaurants,” said driver Stephanie Iriarte. “People want to get from point A P to point B faster.

In 2014 Seaside had 404 reported accidents. In 2016 that number jumped to nearly 600 accidents.

Police believe it has to do with their traffic units being taken away due to budget cuts.

“They were on motorcycles and their primary function was to come out and patrol and enforce traffic violations,” said Borges.

Now Seaside Police are trying to bring back some of that enforcement. More officers will be out looking for people who are running stop signs, speeding and turning unsafely, especially around schools.

“Whenever we have pedestrian traffic, especially when it relates to our kids, there’s a lot of traffic that you’ll see in the morning hours during drop offs and the late hours during pick up,” said Borges. “Those are areas that we want to definitely try to be there.”

Broadway, Del Monte, Noche Buena and Fremont Boulevard are the biggest hot spots for traffic violations.

Gloria Malarin owns the Resale Shop on Fremont. She said she sees cars zip past all the time.

“They don’t respect the signs to stop,” said Malarin.

Iriarte and her roommate said they also almost got hit by a speeding car.

“Some guy was just like speeding in the parking lot,” said Iriarte. “We waited and then we crossed the parking lot to get to our car and he went around and was still speeding in the parking lot and almost hit us a second time.”

Police said it’s incidents like that that they want to prevent.

“We think it enhances the whole vibe of Seaside, being a safe community,” said Borges. “So that’s something we’re moving towards.”

Seaside Police have also issued nearly 200 more citations since 2014.

They hope to bring back the motorcycle units in the next couple of years.

ORIGINAL STORY: Seaside drivers are at increased risk of traffic citations as they pass through Seaside in 2017. KION’s Maya Holmes is working on a story airing tonight looking at the uptick in traffic collisions since 2014 and the reasons behind it.

Since 2014 Seaside police has seen a surge in traffic collisions since 2014 with 404 incidents reported that year and 570 incidents in 2016.

Police are putting more enforcement in place to crack down on people speeding and committing traffic violations.