What is the solution?

By Nancy Black

One of our neighbors died this week in a horrible way. She was hit by a speeding car and killed while walking her dog on a sunny afternoon along Ferguson Road. Her dog was killed, too!

Street racing in Dallas, and everywhere for that matter, must stop. But how do we do it? I’m pretty sure the people who get an adrenalin rush from drag racing on our city streets are not reading this editorial. So, I can’t shame them in the press. They don’t care about anybody but themselves, which is evident by the fact they left the scene of the accident.

We, as a community, do care, though, so it is up to us to find a solution to this serious problem. Council member Paula Blackmon is hosting a community meeting to discuss street racing with Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia, the  Department of Transportation, Code Compliance and concerned neighbors. The meeting is on Thursday, Dec. 2 at 5 p.m. Visit the Dallas City Council District 9 Facebook page for updates on this tragic incident and plans to prevent this type of reckless behavior. 

Personally, I’ve been trying to brainstorm ideas on how to stop these wannabe Speed Racers. More traffic lights? Speed bumps? Speed dips in the road? Police cars on every street corner? 

I think it would be pretty cool if we could engineer the roads to detect cars travelling too fast. The road would recognize the vehicle’s speed and, automatically, spiked stop sticks would be deployed to burst the speeder’s tires. That would, I realize, cause more harm than good, considering stopping a speeding car dead in its tracks would create more of a violent reaction and/or accident. But it’s satisfying to fantasize about those dangerous speed demons getting their karmic recourse in such a dramatic way. 

There is a solution. We just have to find it. Let’s put our collective minds together and figure out the best way to keep our streets, and our neighbors and their animals, safe. 

Here’s the information for the Zoom call, if you are reading this in time to join in the conversation: 

Community Meeting-Speed Racing/Ferguson Road on Dec. 2 at 5 p.m. https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89483813848, Meeting ID: 894 8381 3848, Passcode: 490506.