Louisville police cracking down on speeding, reckless driving on 2nd Street Bridge

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Reckless driving is forcing Louisville Metro Police to crack down on traffic crossing the 2nd Street Bridge, and they have a message for drivers.

"I try to avoid that bridge as much as possible," Chelsea Baker said.

But at other times of the day, people are seen driving recklessly through the narrow lanes.

"People fly past there and I don't think they realize how dangerous it is," said Baker.

The reasons why some drivers avoid the 2nd Street Bridge, also known as the Clark Memorial Bridge, include traffic and speeding.

"I can see it before I get on it, so I just avoid it," said Robert Hancock. "If I really have to go, I'll go to New Albany and cross the Sherman Minton."

In a Facebook post Tuesday, LMPD told drivers to slow down on the bridge as it's Traffic Unit addresses calls for speeding, reckless driving and other traffic violations "at all hours of the day."

"There's been a couple of people that have been killed on that bridge because of not paying attention or driving too fast and hitting the curb and then have to slam into the bridge," Baker said.

As officers have seen an increase in that dangerous driving, they are now actively in the area and pulling people over.

"Slow down, be patient, you're going to get there eventually, leave a little bit earlier," Louisville Metro Police Chief Paul Humphrey said Wednesday.

A crash Tuesday morning involved several cars on the bridge. Drivers like Baker said because of incidents like these, increased police presence could help.

"Because of the siding, I guess a lot of people like to clip it because everybody is scared to hit another car on the other side, so I think it'd be pretty smart," she said.

Not all drivers agree on the police presence, but they do agree drivers need to slow down.

"I don't know if it will do any good or not really," said Hancock. "More police don't help, better drivers help."

Drivers said they saw several people get pulled over Wednesday morning, and encourage other drivers to go the speed limit and drive with patience.