Louisville police crack down on speeders, impound cars for street racing violations

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Louisville Metro Police is cracking down on speeders, and if it appears the driver is racing, police will impound the car.

Police said the average speeder is going 26 miles per hour over the speed limit, and it's becoming all to common to catch drivers hitting triple digits.

"Interstates is a lot of them, but it has trickled over to standard side streets," LMPD Det. Darell Wagner said. "It is just for some reason people believe they are NASCAR drivers."

So far this year, LMPD has impounded 70 cars for racing.

Wagner is partially responsible for the tow lot being as full as it is. Last night, he pulled over a car that he clocked on the radar going 113 mph on a city side street.

WDRB asked Det. Wagner if he impounded that car.

"Yes sir, it is part of the street racing ordinance we have. Was he racing? He was racing. He was driving in such an egregious way. He was racing," Det. Wagner said.

Louisville's street racing ordinance allows the cops to take a car and park it at the tow lot for six months for the first offense. The fines and length the car stays in the tow lot goes up for second and third offenses.

The ordinance was designed to stop the street takeovers and spinning events, which Det. Wagner said has slowed down some of the social media driven spinning events. However, the interstates he said, are still a race track.

"I call it the autobahn because from the 64 to 264 interchange, all the way around to 71, it is just lead foot, and they are driving at an extremely excessive rate of speed," Det. Wagner said.

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