By Mary O’KEEFE

Traffic has always been a problem in Southern California including in the Crescenta Valley and the City of Glendale. Street racing and reckless driving have become issues that have residents worried about the roadways.

“We have had more reckless [driving] than racing on our streets,” said Sgt. Ben Bateman, Glendale Police Dept. “Our street racing [that we do have] isn’t organized like the illegal [organized] racing in other areas. This is more of two cars pulling up to a red light, revving their engines, both punching it and taking off.”

Sometimes the drivers know each other and sometimes they are just two drivers who take the opportunity to race.

A fatal example of racing and driving too fast was seen in August, which ended in a high speed crash in Burbank. According to reports, three vehicles were involved in a traffic collision at the intersection of Glenoaks Boulevard and Andover Drive.

According to witness accounts and a police investigation, it appeared that the drivers of a Kia and Mercedes-Benz were racing, driving at an accelerated rate of speed. A Volkswagen with three occupants was attempting to turn left when it was struck.

The driver and two of the three passengers in the Volkswagen died; they ranged in age from 19 to 21. The 19-year-old male driver of the Kia and 17-year-old Mercedes-Benz driver were arrested and each charged with three counts of murder and one count of reckless driving.

There are other times when drivers are not racing against others but are just driving well above the posted speed limit … and not with the flow of the traffic.

“We had a young man in our [Glendale] neighborhood of Pacific Avenue and Stocker Street [who] lost control of [his vehicle], hit a car, then [drove] through a bus bench and hit a building,” Bateman said.

There were people at the bus bench at the time but luckily they were not injured; in fact there were only minor injuries reported relating to the accident.

Although there are impaired drivers on the road, the majority appears to be just driving fast with little regard for others, according to Bateman.

“We have been receiving a lot of complaints from residents in neighborhoods about modified exhaust [on vehicles] with [drivers who have] no regard for stop signs and drive too fast,” he said.

An increase in modified exhaust on vehicles seems to be a common issue borne of pandemic isolation. Perhaps because people had more time on their hands to modify their cars or, due to the increased costs of buying a new or used car, people returned to work on the vehicle they already owned. For whatever reason, several cities began looking at writing new noise ordinances to curb this trend.

Bateman said these loud cars affect entire neighborhoods, and are not just “hot rods” but modified exhausts found on BMWs and Mercedes-Benzes.

Although there are many complaints of loud cars, speeding is still the issue that concerns most residents.

GPD patrol and traffic units are working on this issue every day but officers cannot be everywhere and now, with school back in session, they are focused on issues near schools as well, Bateman said.

He added officers have witnessed a lot of traffic violations at schools and, in addition to handing out citations, they use this time as a way to educate drivers on traffic laws.

“Parents have to get back into the rhythm of being back at school,” he said.

In the meantime, GPD officers will continue to patrol, cite and “educate” drivers.