Fed-up neighbors say stop signs aren't enough to stop speeders from turning their street into a drag strip

PETERSBURG, Va. -- Doug Vargo has seen enough. Vargo has lived on Grove Avenue in Petersburg, Virginia for more than 20 years. In that time, he said he's seen many drivers disobey traffic laws and abandoned common sense.

“Speeding was a constant. There would be drag races up and down the street. There would be sideswipes and hit and runs," he said. "I’d like to see, either more police presence out here or something else done.”

Vargo was one of many neighbors who asked the city to erect stop signs in an attempt to slow down the speeders.

But Grove Avenue's three new stop signs have created another problem, he said. The speeders have become stop-sign runners.

When Vargo noticed what was happening, he began to record the law-breaking drivers.

“Within 20 minutes, I had eight or nine videos of people just blowing through the stop signs," he said. "Motorcyclists running through stop signs while other people were stopped."

He posted some of the videos on social media to raise awareness about the issue and let the drivers know other people were paying attention.

Longtime Grove Avenue resident Michael Edwards did not need to see the videos to know there was a problem on his street.

While he was initially against the stop signs, he quickly grew to appreciate their effect.

“I noticed it did calm them, but over the last couple of weeks, we’ve seen an uptick in folks who either can’t read or they just not going to pay attention to the law," Edwards said.

When CBS 6 senior reporter Wayne Covil visited Grove Avenue on Monday Morning, a few drivers rolled through the stop sign and a few others barely slowed down before entering the intersection.

Vargo would like to see police increase enforcement.

"If you’re not going to enforce it, it really is just causing people to see how fast they can run between the stop signs," he said.

Police told Covil they were aware of the situation and have already taken steps to ticket drivers who run the Grove Avenue stop signs.

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