| Updated: 3/19 9:11 am |
Published: 3/18 8:46 pm
|
An East Tulsa construction zone is costing drivers a lot of money.
Police are out in force near 51st and Garnett, and they’re not giving warning.
Employees at Oklahoma Oncology have a front row seat for what some are calling a police trap. Kay Cowan says for the last two weeks she’s seen dozens of drivers pulled over, including a number of cancer patients.
“Four and five and six at time,” Cowan says. “We’ve had patients complain, we’ve had patients come in and say they’ve gotten $150 ticket.”
Cindy Hutchcraft wasn’t thrilled to hear how much the ticket would cost her. FOX23 News was there as Officer Jeff Downs with Tulsa Police pulled over Hutchcraft for making the illegal left turn. She says she didn’t realize she’d done anything wrong.
“There was no traffic,” Hutchcraft says. “And there was no sign that I saw.”
Officer Downs says that’s a story he’s hearing time and time again.
“When I stop people, the majority of the comments they’re making is (sic) ‘sorry, we weren’t paying attention, we didn’t see the signs.’”
But the signs are there. Officers Downs estimates in about three hours he’d written about 20 tickets, and he was the only officer watching the intersection Monday.
The week before, he says nearly a dozen officers were in the area rounding up drivers, each of them getting tickets like Hutchcraft.
“He’s giving a me ticket. He said there’s no warning in Oklahoma,” Hutchcraft reports.
Cowan says that’s why oncology nurses are taking the initiative and warning patients ahead of time.
“We want them to avoid the tickets,” Cowan says. “Because it’s highly likely that they’ll get a ticket.”
Police plan to continue monitoring the area as construction is ongoing.
