KLAS

Las Vegas police, Clark County partnership to target illegal street takeovers

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Community leaders came together Tuesday morning to combat a serious problem: illegal street racing.

Grand Valley Parkway and Frontage Road near US 93 have become hot spots for street racers, that’s why Metro police and the Nevada Department of Transportation installed safety rumble strips.

“We looked at the wheel path, the spinning radius of a vehicle and we tried to put the rumble strips in between, and with the design of the rumble strips, it’ll make the car vibrate,” Mario Gomez a District 1 Engineer for the Nevada Department of Transportation said.

He said the intent is to slow drivers down.

“It cost around $70,000 for putting in the rumble strips, then also we restriped the intersection as part of our regular maintenance,” added Gomez.

Metro is monitoring this area daily, if effective, you could see more of these safety rumble strips in the community.

Metro Officer Daryl Rhoads said street racers would threaten truck drivers delivering supplies by jumping on the trucks, even shooting illegal fireworks toward them.

“So Rebel Oil company and the drivers themselves said somethings got to happen, somethings got to stop or we can not deliver fuel to Las Vegas,” explained officer Rhoads. “Can you imagine the impact that would have on our community to not have this fuel?

Clark County Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick said this is just the start of a big change as the county has pushed legislation to fight illegal street racing,

“It’s a lot more than just taking over the intersection, it’s what are they doing and what havoc are they causing?” said Kirkpatrick. ” This is a creative way to see if this works.”

It’s also been a little over a year since the Racing, Apprehension, and Intervention Detail (RAID) was created to fight street racing.

Since its development, Metro has made 179 arrests, issued 214 citations, towed 210 cars, recovered several firearms, and added cooperation from the Department of Motor Vehicles.

If Metro comes out to the scene and takes in a car that has been modified and is unsafe for the roadway, the driver will be referred to the DMV, and an inspection will take place on the driver’s car.

Drivers will have either to reverse or modify their vehicle before they can drive it on the road again.