Newcastle Man With Radar Gun Clocks Speeds Over 90 Miles Per Hour In Neighborhood

A Newcastle man and his neighbors are fed up with drivers' excessive speeds on their street and say they are taking matters into their own hands.

Steve Vang said police had done very little to stop the problem, so armed with a radar gun, he has begun monitoring driver's speeds in his neighborhood.

“Here comes a truck moving pretty good,” said Steve Vang. “This guy just now slammed on his brakes, and he was going 51.”

He said he is fed up with speeding drivers but all he can do is watch them go by.

“So, I just sit out here, drink me some lemonade, and watch them by,” said Vang. “I’ve clocked them in the 80s and 90s.”

Vang said the fastest was someone driving 97 miles per hour on the two-lane road in Newcastle.

“The sad thing was a guy was out jogging,” said Vang. “It scared him to death, he stopped and talked to me and said man if that would have hit me it would have splattered me all over the road.”

Vang has seen too many close calls, but he will never forget when a driver nearly killed his neighbor.

“We used to exercise, walk, jog, walk our dog down the street a lot,” said Charles Wallace, neighbor.

That all changed in 2016 after a driver hit Charles Wallace's wife while she was walking their dog. They still have the pictures from that day.

“Med flighted to OU,” said Charles Wallace, neighbor. “Six months before she could go back to work.”

Wallace and his neighbors want Newcastle city leaders to make some changes.

“We just ask that the city lower the speed limit,” said Wallace. “They told me it’s not going to slow anybody down. Do something about it, right?”

Vang has gone to the police and city council.

“Everybody just kind of shrugs their shoulders and says it’s not my problem,” said Vang. “Well, I want to know whose problem it is?”

Vang said until there are officers out there ticketing drivers, or the speed limit is lowered, he will be out with his radar.

News 9 spoke to Newcastle’s City Manager Kevin Self. He said officers have been monitoring the street for several weeks and wrote one speeding ticket during that time. Self said the police department has four to six officers during the daytime to cover the entire city and they do the best they can with what they have.