Flint, MI — City officials filed a lawsuit against a man accused of reckless driving in Flint as part of a renewed effort to “crack down” on the dangerous driving across the city.
According to a City of Flint press release, the lawsuit involves a man who was seen driving 100 miles per hour on Saginaw Street and Martin Luther King Boulevard, as well as doing “donuts” in the street and almost colliding with another car on March 25.
The claim states that the man should be declared a public nuisance and his vehicle should be forfeited to the City of Flint.
The suit follows up on an ordinance, passed by Flint City Council in June 2022, allowing for reckless drivers to be declared public nuisances, and thereby giving the city the ability to enact stricter punishments, such as forfeiting vehicles.
Reckless driving, as defined by the ordinance, includes driving that puts the safety of people or property at risk, including “stunt driving” like figure eights, sliding, drifting, and donuts.
Flint Police Department Public Information Officer Tyrone Booth said the department has issued 812 traffic citations so far this year, and that they “expect for those to increase as the summer months come in.”
“What we will do is not tolerate any misbehavior in your motor vehicles anymore,” said Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley at an April 11, 2023 press conference. “We’ll enforce all of our traffic regulation and rules and laws in this community.”
Neeley said the city is also going to strictly enforce other laws, like no parking on the sidewalk or a front lawn.
“We have a community here, and we must have law and order,” he said. “This is not a bluff. I repeat this is not a bluff.”
Reckless driving has been an ongoing issue in the city. In 2022, Flint officials installed speed humps throughout the city including on Eldorado Drive, Myrtle Avenue and Pengelly Road in hopes of solving the problem just months before the Council signed off on the June 2022 reckless driving ordinance.
Flint Police Chief Terrence Green said there have been people driving as fast as 100 miles per hour in residential areas, where the speed limit is 25 miles per hour.
“There will be zero tolerance for drivers of vehicles traveling at very high rates of speed,” Green said. “100 miles an hour in a residential district? That’s not speed, that’s reckless driving.”