LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — The location of a North Las Vegas suspected DUI crash that killed two toddlers is seemingly a hotspot for speeding and drunk driving, according to neighbors.
The North Las Vegas Police Department (NLVPD) suspected the crash on Sunday, along Scott Robinson Boulevard within a residential area near Lone Mountain Road and Clayton Street, was caused by a “family member” of the deceased two and three-year-olds speeding while under the influence.
The stretch of road is the access point to several neighborhoods.
Neighbors, like Davis Mallory who lives directly behind the palm tree into which the car crashed around 9:15 p.m. on Sunday, said the crash joined a growing list of incidents with seemingly no solution to prevent them in sight.
“My wife was in the bedroom right there at the time,” Mallory said while pointing to the bedroom near his backyard wall. “If they had gone through that wall, they were going to go right into the bedroom where she was at.”
The palm tree, he said, has prevented four to five other cars from slamming into his backyard since he moved in.
“(Drivers) come down that street super fast,” Mallory said, talking about the curve of the street that creates a blind spot for traffic. “The sprinklers come on at nighttime, so when the sprinklers come on, the water drips down on that side of the road, like right by my back wall where that tree is at, and they slide every single time into that tree.”
This blind spot, along a street with no speed bumps or stop signs near the scene of Sunday’s crash, is what other neighbors, such as Andrew Maldonado, said is just half of the problem.
The 23-year-old lives on the corner of one of the neighborhood’s entrances where he said a car rammed into his family’s backyard years ago.
He recounted seeing the vehicle’s occupants exiting the crashed vehicle with alcohol bottles in their hands.
“It sounded like a gunshot bang,” Maldonado said outside his home Tuesday morning. “It definitely gave us anxiety, let alone even being in our backyard. ‘When’s the next person going to come through and smash our backyard.’”
He added that tire marks on the nearby intersection are from drivers who frequently do donuts there in the middle of the night before loudly revving their engines and speeding off.
An NLVPD representative confirmed to 8 News Now that Sunday’s crash was the fourth vehicle collision police responded to along Scott Robinson Boulevard in 2022. Those collisions rose to five and six for 2021 and 2020, respectively.
In 2022 NLVPD said the department was awarded $100,000 in Nevada Department of Public Safety, Office of Traffic Safety grant funding to “address impaired driving” through measures such as DUI checkpoints and collaborations with other law enforcement agencies.
That is in addition to $176,000 awarded to the City of North Las Vegas to reduce fatalities and focus on efforts to “reduce distracted and impaired driving through Selective Traffic Enforcement Programs, saturation patrols, and checkpoints.”
Regardless, neighbors say multiple attempts to add speed-control measures, like speed bumps or stop signs, have gone unanswered and have left them fearing that the next crash will be in their backyard.
“They treat it like a NASCAR rally. It’s like there’s no speed limit here,” Maldonado said. “Adding a police officer or patrol is always temporary. It’s a temporary fix to the problem.”
A representative for the City of North Las Vegas tells 8 News Now that speed bumps are not feasible along this stretch of the street due to how it’s designated administratively and impedes access for emergency vehicles. They added in a statement, “roadways of this type are intended to provide access to the surrounding developments and are not meant for high-speed through traffic.”
However, they said enforcement efforts from state grant funding may be directed toward the area. They ask those who witness reckless driving along the road and others in North Las Vegas to contact 311 and additionally “follow posted speed limit signs, use proper safety restraints and child safety seats and follow all relevant roadway rules and posted signage.”