Traffic tickets flood Rockford streets after fatal crash, speeding complaints

ROCKFORD — Police have stepped up traffic enforcement after a fatal crash and a public outcry over speeding and reckless driving. 

Mayor Tom McNamara said an increased enforcement effort is in part related to an Aug. 26 crash that killed East High School student Mason Crowe Hada, but also because of other crashes and complaints of rampant speeding across the city.

"Every neighborhood meeting you go to, folks are bringing up speeding and just lawlessness on the road," McNamara said. "People are focusing too much on their cell phones. They are focusing on electronics in their cars and driving way too fast."

Hada was a 16-year-old E-Rab football player on his way home from practice on the eve of his first varsity start. Witnesses say a car driven by an 18-year-old at speeds estimated as high as 80 mph crashed into Hada's vehicle on Broadway in the area of 24th Street. 

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City engineers are conducting a Broadway traffic study after neighbors and East High parents asked for another stoplight on Broadway in hopes of slowing traffic. 

Starting even before the crash, Rockford police had conducted additional traffic enforcement details because of complaints of speeding and reckless driving especially in the Broadway area, Lt. Daniel Watton said.

Three officers in early August conducted a special traffic detail in the 2800-3100 blocks of Broadway. Although they had planned to conduct the operation and then move on to other areas of the city, there were so many speeding vehicles that they decided to stay at the location. 

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In an email to the Rockford Register Star, Watton said the officers made 30 traffic stops, wrote 30 speeding tickets, one citation for a suspended license and another for cell phone use. The speed of drivers ticketed ranged from 54 to 70 mph in a 35 mph zone.

During a similar police operation in the 900 block of North Main Street, police wrote 19 tickets for speeding and five for other traffic violations. The average speed of the vehicles ticketed was not made available.

"This is unacceptable, and we will continue to monitor these high speed areas and issue citations," Watton said in the email. "Our mission with these additional details is the same as always, to keep Rockfordians safe.”

Jeff Kolkey: jkolkey@rrstar.com; @jeffkolkey