Just who is guilty of driving recklessly? You’d be surprised, or not

Hamtramckans have themselves mostly to blame for speeding and reckless drivers. In 2019, the police department issued over 14,000 traffic citations. File photo

By Charles Sercombe
Hamtramckans have long complained about speeding and reckless drivers.
Just who are these folks behind the wheel?
Hamtramck, take a look in the mirror.
According to traffic citations issued by Hamtramck police officers from June 1 to Dec. 31, 2019 – a six-month period – most of the tickets went to Hamtramckans.
According to police statistics, which The Review obtained by a Freedom of Information Act request, there were 1,078 tickets issued to residents.
The next highest violators came from Detroit – 985 of them.
The tickets included moving violations, no insurance, expired license plates and drunk driving.
The most common ticket issued was for speeding, which there were 923 issued during those six months.
The next highest was for impeding traffic – 485 tickets – which is a catch-all ticket that usually means a police officer gave a driver a break for something more serious, such as running a red light.
Other most-issued tickets include: driving while license suspended (465), no insurance (418), disobeying a stop sign (272), running a red light (125), equipment failures (48), failing to signal (47), careless driving (27) and squealing of tires (12).
In many instances, drivers were issued a combination of tickets.
So, are the number of tickets issued here in Hamtramck typical of other communities?
According to a Detroit News article from 2018, many communities have seen a decline in the number of tickets issued for the last several years – mostly because departments have cut back on staffing.
Hamtramck used to have an aggressive – some said much too aggressive – traffic ticket program, but that has been greatly scaled back.
In total, Hamtramck issued 14,812 traffic citations in 2019, but over 9,000 of those tickets were for parking violations.
Other details emerged from reviewing the statistics:
• Suburbanites often get snagged for drunk driving – apparently, they can’t handle Hamtramck’s rotgut of choice, “Jezy” — or as it is properly known: Jezynowka, a Polish blackberry brandy.
• If you drive a Dodge Charger, you are most likely going to be busted for speeding, careless driving or squealing tires.
Posted May 1, 2020