Some North Naples drivers brazenly ignore the rules of the road

Right now, an alert about a hot spot for dangerous driving. WINK News cameras caught drivers making illegal U-turns and running red lights Monday all along U.S. 41 in Naples Park. Some drivers said they want the sheriff’s office to step up and do more.

A white minivan heads straight out of a right only turn lane. Video shows the driver tries to get across. As you watch, you hear the disturbing sound of screeching tires and then a loud car collision.

Deputies from the Collier County Sheriff’s Office and Emergency Medical Services rushed to the scene. Yet a silver car brazenly makes an illegal U-turn in front of the crash – all caught on camera. Gail Johnson, who has lived in the Naples Park area for decades, told us that it is standard. “You have to know when to drive,” Johnson said.

Like many motorists, Johnson is strategic at the times she leaves her home. “You drive when it’s not so busy later in the day or early in the morning and that’s usually the best way to go,” she said. When one car makes a U-turn, the others follow suit. But the driving infractions are not limited to illegal U-turns. For instance, drivers are also continuously rolling through red lights.

Eileen Herzog, who lives in North Naples, said she had been a witness to many close calls by drivers who do not turn on their signal, change lanes too fast because they are distracted and do not know where they are going. “If people respected the laws and did what they were supposed to do,” she said, “it would be a lot easier to drive around here.”

Herzog asks that CCSO spend more time in the area enforcing the laws. “They really need to pull over people that are disrespectful and who are not signaling,” she said. “They can cause terrible accidents,” CCSO told WINK that it does patrol high traffic areas, including the intersection at U.S. 41 and Naples Park.