Aiken Public Safety tickets students, resident for speeding, running signs

Aiken Public Safety officers saturated the streets in a Southside neighborhood Wednesday afternoon looking for speeding motorists and drivers running stop signs, and they found exactly what they were looking for.

In recent weeks, Aiken Public Safety has received complaints from residents living in the Sandlewood subdivision near South Aiken High School.

The callers have voiced concerns that motorists have been speeding through the area and using it as a cut-through to Pine Log and Powderhouse roads. The drivers are failing to slow to residential speeds, officials said.

The officers also noticed a large number of drivers failing to stop at posted stop signs.

"They are running right through them or only stopping when they see us," said Officer Jason Griffin of the City's Highway Enforcement of Aggressive Driving Team.

Although many of the drivers stopped were students, at least one of the motorists plowing though intersections was a resident.

Aiken Public Safety issued tickets for motorists running stop signs - a four-point violation.

Many of the drivers riding through the neighborhood were chatting on cell phones and not paying attention, police noted.

"This is a residential neighborhood with children playing outside," Lt. David Turno said. "The residents here have legitimate concerns."

There were as many as a half-dozen officers in the neighborhood to monitor traffic. They were all busy with motorists.

Currently, there are no posted speed limits in the neighborhood, which means the speed limit is 30 mph.

But Turno said Public Safety might look to reduce the speeds and set the limit at 25 mph.

Although many of the officers monitoring the drivers were hidden from view, Turno said Public Safety wants to notify the public of the problem.

"We want people to slow down," he said. "We want them to know we are going to be here."

He said they will be back.

Contact Karen Daily at kdaily@aikenstandard.com.