Cape Coral looks into why crashes are up on Del Prado after speed reduction

The City of Cape Coral decided to lower the speed limit on Del Prado Boulevard a couple months ago, but crashes are still happening.

The Cape Coral Police Department said the number of people moving to Cape Coral is increasing, and of course, they can’t rule out that more people are on the roads now that coronavirus cases are slowing.

Christine Kosta calls a stretch of Del Prado a traffic nightmare.

“A couple months ago, about July 10, I got into an accident making a left turn over by the CVS in between that and the sports bar,” Kosta said. “Unfortunately, I got my car totaled and hit.”

The high number of crashes, not to mention the growing number of businesses, is exactly why the Lee County Department of Transportation lowered the speed limit from 45 to 40 mph months earlier.

But data from CCPD shows that even with the new changes, crashes are up. As to why, CCPD says it can be a variety of reasons.

“Whether it’s August, September, over June or July, that could be more people on the roads because the pandemic thankfully slowing, more people are getting out there,” said Cpl. Phil Mullen. “It’s also coming to be snowbird time, so people are coming down from up north as their summer ends.”

Whether the new changes will help, drivers are keeping faith.

“I feel much better about the speed limit being changed,” Kosta said.

The CCPD said another factor is the growing population of Cape Coral. Police say they’re always doing patrols on Del Prado and they’ll continue to monitor it.