One Abbeville Patrolman was busy the last two weeks writing tickets.
You better obey traffic laws in Abbeville or else
Abbeville drivers, listen up! Police Chief Mike Hardy wants to remind you to follow the traffic laws, or you might end up facing some expensive consequences.
Hardy informed the city council and Mayor Roslyn White that he has recently brought on a patrolman, a former officer from Maurice, specifically to focus on one task during his shift: issuing tickets to those who violate traffic laws in Abbeville.
In just two weeks on the force, this patrolman has already issued over 142 tickets, averaging about 20 a day. Most of these citations are for drivers failing to stop at stop signs around Abbeville. One of his main hunting grounds for stop sign offenders is downtown, especially for those coming in from the La. 14 Bypass.
“That is his job to work traffic,” Hardy said at city council on Tuesday. “He has written a lot of tickets, because we want people to stop at stop signs. There is not such thing as a rolling stop, which was illegal. You need to stop.”
Chief Hardy mentioned that his department often receives calls from residents reporting speeding drivers or those ignoring stop signs. To address these concerns, he plans to assign a patrolman to the specific areas where the complaints originate.
“He’ll focus on that area and cover it thoroughly,” Hardy stated.
The definition of stopping at stop sign means coming to a complete and momentary halt before the stop line, crosswalk, or the edge of the intersection, and then proceeding only when it’s safe and you yield the right-of-way to other vehicles and pedestrians.
One driver was given two running the stop sign tickets on one traffic stop because they rolled through two stops signs before the patrolman could pull the driver over.
Another driver received two running the stop sign tickets in a week by the same patrolman.
“People will tell him that they slowed down at the stop sign,” Hardy said. “It is not a slow down sign. It is stop sign.”
For those who have been given a ticket for running a stop sign in Abbeville, be prepared to pay $215. The average traffic ticket cost in Abbeville is $215.
If you decide to drive through a yield sign around Magdalen Square, that is going to cost you $215. If you run a red light or did not put your signal on when you turned, $215 per ticket.
The city fine for having illegal tint on your vehicle is $205.
If you are caught speeding, a ticket could cost anywhere from $220 to $350, depending on how fast the driver was going.
Chief Hardy explained the reason why he assigned this new patrolman to traffic.
“Abbeville has a lot of accidents for a small town,” he said. “People have a bad habit of running stop signs. Most just roll through the stop sign. If there is a four-way stop, and both are rolling through, they hit each other. No one stopped.
“If we enforce it, we are trying to change the habit of the Abbeville driver. We are not trying to be mean.”
