DEMING, N.M. (KRQE) – People living along the main road in Deming are living in fear. They say speeders and drag racers are making their neighborhood a dangerous place. Dozens of videos show reckless drivers, flying down Pine Street in Deming. People who live along that street say they deal with speeding and drag racing all day, every day.
The posted speed limit on the street is 35, but the video captured by a doorbell camera shows countless drivers going way over that. The people we spoke with, who want to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, say they’ve complained to the city and police countless times. They want to know why more isn’t being done about it.
“What we’re dealing with is that they’re going at a high rate of speed,” they said. “We can hear them, and we’re terrified, we’re scared,” they told us during an interview.
Turns out, short of writing citations, the city can’t do much to prevent the speeding, at least not right now. Pine Street is a state road, which means the Department of Transportation is responsible for making any upgrades to the road. We asked if they have any plans to install speed bumps. DOT says they recently repaved the road and made sidewalk ADA repairs. Now, they’re working to transfer the road to the city, which would give them the authority to make necessary changes.
It’s not clear how long that exchange may take, D.O.T says they’ve already been in the process for eight months now. We also talked to Deming Police Chief, Clint Hogan, he says they recently wrote more than 30 speeding tickets in the area.