By Jessie Weisner

Residents concern about playground zone speeders

Oct 4, 2018 | 5:16 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Playground zones are in place for a reason, but some residents of Connaught Drive Southwest say the sign on their street seems to be just a suggestion.

“The speeding in our neighbourhood is kind of out of hand,” says Carrie Paul, a resident of the street. “I’ve lived here for almost 9 years and I’ve put in plenty of complaints to the cops.”

With the number of kids in the area, they don’t feel enough is being done to curb speeding in their neighbourhood.

“I don’t think it’s enough like I’m just worried that one of our kids are gonna get hurt,” says Paul.

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Niki Gray’s frustration over speeding reached the point where she took to Facebook to complain about a specific driver.

She posted the following status on a neighbourhood watch group on Facebook:

“Someone PLEASE tell me who drives the grey 4 Runner down Connaught Drive SW beside the playground between 5:30-6pm every day. She’s driving at least 60km through the 30km zone while kids are everywhere. She’s driving so fast I can never get her license plate to report her. She’s going to end up running a kid over!!!!!!!”

Gray ended up speaking with the woman on Tuesday evening, and giving her license plate to the police.

Police spoke with the woman, and said Gray was happy with how they handled the situation.

Police did acknowledge they’ve received complaints from residents.

They collected speed data on the street in 2017, and said it didn’t reveal much.

“The speeding in that area, it’s not abnormal from what we would see in any other playground zone,” says Sergeant Clarke White. “Its about what we’d expect, but generally the average speed is about 35 kilometres an hour.
Police also increased enforcement in the area earlier this year after receiving another complaint.

“Members spent time conducting speed enforcement but did not observe any speeding violations and said traffic was very light each time they were there,” The Medicine Hat Police Service said in a statement. “With the large amount of high-risk locations that we have to monitor with our limited resources, we were unable to provide continuous enforcement of this location as was expected by the concerned citizen.”

Connaught Drive is currently being reviewed to determine if it should be approved for photo radar.

In the meantime, police say they plan on posting a speed spy in the area again to gather data, and determine whether to create an enforcement plan.