Lincoln Police Department issued 135 subpoenas on O Street over Memorial Day weekend | crime and courts

The department announced the results of its annual O Street effort in a news release Tuesday, more than three weeks after the grant-funded enforcement detail finished its work along the corridor, where officers issued 27 speeding allegations and 34 “other traffic citations” and a dozen Tickets for unnecessary noise. They also made five DUI arrests and arrested three people on pending warrants.

Overall, officials over the weekend that ended tragically on May 29 when an 18-year-old Omaha man in a Ford Taurus rammed a Toyota Corolla parked at the 52nd Street intersection that sent both cars into a crowd gathered on the sidewalk .

Both occupants of the Toyota – Emily Siebenhor, 20, and her passenger Edith Hermosillo, 22 – died while 20 bystanders were treated for injuries at local hospitals.

Kyvell Stark, who police said had been driving nearly 90 miles an hour in the moments before the accident, has been charged with two counts of manslaughter and two counts of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, which caused serious bodily harm.

The accident – which occurred despite the police department conducting high-visibility traffic enforcement along O Street – has called into question the effectiveness of traditional traffic enforcement methods along the corridor, which has been plagued by dangerous driving behavior for decades, despite continued police vigilance.

And although city officials – including Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird and Police Commissioner Teresa Ewins – have promised policy changes to address safety issues along the street, potential solutions to O Street’s longstanding problems remain unclear.