“You were doing 66 miles per hour in a posted 45 mile an hour zone.”
Bend Police Officer Cody Pesio was on traffic enforcement on the Bend Parkway Thursday. And he rarely had to wait long to find someone speeding.
“69 miles an hour in a 45 mile an hour posted speed zone,” he told a driver.
Bend PD has extra patrols out through next Monday on the Parkway. The city says there has been an increase in dangerous driving.
“Please slow down. Speeding is one of the major factors of the crashes on the parkway,” Pesio told a driver. He also said distracted driving is a big problem.
“The goal of traffic enforcement is to gain compliance and make the community a safer place,” Pesio said.
“71 in a posted 45 mile an hour is way too fast,” he told a driver.
At least two additional officers are patrolling the Parkway between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. on weekdays and 12:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. on weekends through June 20.
“You were doing 76 miles an hour,” he told another driver.
“That was my bad. I’m so sorry,” she said.
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Anyone who’s lived in Central Oregon for five minutes knows there is speeding on the Parkway, where the posted speed limit through the city is 45 miles per hour.
“Those are 59. You could stop those all day,” Pesio said as he pointed his LIDAR toward traffic. He indicated speeders are easy to spot.
“You can usually visually see them speeding and then you verify with a radar or LIDAR,” he said.
Of course, Pesio has repeatedly heard one of the time-honored excuses.
“A lot of people like to say they like to keep up with the flow of traffic,” he said. “You’re supposed to abide by the speed limits. Follow the rules. Just because one person is doing it doesn’t mean you need to do it also.”
There have been at least 206 collisions on the Bend Parkway in the past two years, the city said. That includes fatal crashes that involved speeding and crossing over the median.
Drivers are also reminded to move over when they see emergency vehicles pulled to the side of the road. If you can’t change lanes safely, slow down and give as much room as possible.
