Aurora Leaders Eye Ideas To Stop Illegal Street Racing After I-225 Gridlock
AURORA, Colo. (CBS4) - Aurora leaders are looking into a proposal similar to Colorado Springs and other places that would allow police to seize cars involved in street racing. The discussion has once again been brought to the forefront after Sunday night's halting of southbound Interstate 225 due to illegal street car activity.
"We'd just jumped onto 225, and we're going down cruising and all of a sudden you just see a bunch of red lights," Wesley Davis said.
Davis and his girlfriend were coming back from DIA to Englewood when they got stuck. During this time Aurora Police tweeted about southbound lanes I-225 between Alameda and Colfax Avenues were gridlocked due to street races blocking and interfering with traffic.
"We get there. We smell a bunch of smoke, and we're like is there a car on fire?" Davis recalled.
The noise of burning tires made it clear what was happening.
"You're like, 'Okay this is kind of scary, we don't know what's going to happen.'"
Similar things like this have happened before, not just in Aurora.
"I'm looking at proposing an ordinance similar to Colorado Springs, Los Angeles, San Diego," Aurora Councilmember and Mayor Pro Tem Francoise Bergan said.
Bergan has been in discussion with law enforcement to come up with ways to crackdown illegal street activity. Like the Colorado Springs proposal, officers wouldn't be able to seize cars right away, but a judge's order could keep the car off the streets for a period if its found to be involved with racing.
"I'm not the only one getting these calls. All the councilmembers are getting these calls," Bergan added.
Another idea from Councilmember Juan Marcano is a lot like building a skating park, so car enthusiasts have a place to go. He is looking into possible venues suitable to hold car meet-ups to deter drivers from taking over roadways.
"What if somebody's in labor, and they can't get to a hospital because of this kind of stuff, you're threatening that child's life if you can't get to the hospital in time?" Davis asked.
Mayor Mike Coffman released a statement in regard to what happened:
"It takes a lot of social media chatter to pull of an event like this, so I absolutely don't understand how our Police Department didn't know that this was going to happen. What I need to know now is what they are going to do to make sure that it doesn't happen again. I expect more from our department and the residents of the City of Aurora expect more from our Department."
In response, APD tweeted, "The Mayor is certainly entitled to his own opinion. This is an issue that is larger than just Aurora and through the metro-wide street racing working group, we are hopeful that we can address some of these ongoing issues."
Bergan hopes a possible proposal may be on the table for council discussion by end of summer. She also noted this is an issue legislators need to take up as whatever changes happen in Aurora only apply to one city.