\n\t\t\t\t\t\tTwo recent crashes on the same Cape Coral street have raised concerns among residents and prompted police to step up traffic enforcement in the area.Authorities say a pickup truck crashed into a power pole along East Gator Circle last week, nearly striking a nearby home and leaving several families without electricity. A 911 caller reported that a vehicle had flipped and that power was out in the neighborhood.Just days later, another crash occurred only a few houses away. Police say a speeding driver lost control and slammed into a parked Hyundai, totaling the vehicle.The homeowner, Chris Meurlot, said he and his family were out of town when the crash happened.\u201cMy neighbor called and told us there was an accident at our house,\u201d Meurlot said. \u201cIt\u2019s not the way you want to come back from vacation.\u201dMerlot said the damaged car belonged to his wife and had been fully paid off.\u201cLuckily, her car didn\u2019t hit my daughter\u2019s car, because then we\u2019d be dealing with two vehicles,\u201d he said. \u201cJust because somebody can\u2019t obey the rules \u2014 it\u2019s a real pain. It\u2019s going to be a real pain.\u201dPolice say both crashes highlight an ongoing issue with speeding along East Gator Circle, where the posted speed limit is 35 miles per hour.\u201cEvery accident we\u2019ve seen on Gator Circle has been completely avoidable,\u201d said Mercedes Simonds of the Cape Coral Police Department. \u201cWhether it\u2019s speeding or some other behavior, that\u2019s why we\u2019re out there.\u201dOfficers have increased patrols in the area in response. Multiple drivers have already been pulled over in recent days as part of the heightened enforcement effort.Residents say they appreciate the increased police presence and hope it will prevent future crashes.\u201cI just hope the city steps in and does something so it doesn\u2019t come to that for people,\u201d Meurlot said, referring to concerns that repeated incidents could push residents to consider moving.Police have not released updated figures on how many drivers have been cited since the two crashes, but records have been requested.Officials continue to urge drivers to obey posted speed limits and remain cautious while traveling through residential neighborhoods.DOWNLOAD\u202fthe free\u202fGulf Coast News app\u202ffor your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app to stream news, entertainment and original programming on your TV.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tCAPE CORAL, Fla. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Two recent crashes on the same Cape Coral street have raised concerns among residents and prompted police to step up traffic enforcement in the area.<\/p>\n
Authorities say a pickup truck crashed into a power pole<\/a> along East Gator Circle last week, nearly striking a nearby home and leaving several families without electricity. A 911 caller reported that a vehicle had flipped and that power was out in the neighborhood.<\/p>\n Just days later, another crash occurred only a few houses away. Police say a speeding driver lost control and slammed into a parked Hyundai<\/a>, totaling the vehicle.<\/p>\n The homeowner, Chris Meurlot, said he and his family were out of town when the crash happened.<\/p>\n \u201cMy neighbor called and told us there was an accident at our house,\u201d Meurlot said. \u201cIt\u2019s not the way you want to come back from vacation.\u201d<\/p>\n Merlot said the damaged car belonged to his wife and had been fully paid off.<\/p>\n \u201cLuckily, her car didn\u2019t hit my daughter\u2019s car, because then we\u2019d be dealing with two vehicles,\u201d he said. \u201cJust because somebody can\u2019t obey the rules \u2014 it\u2019s a real pain. It\u2019s going to be a real pain.\u201d<\/p>\n Police say both crashes highlight an ongoing issue with speeding along East Gator Circle, where the posted speed limit is 35 miles per hour.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery accident we\u2019ve seen on Gator Circle has been completely avoidable,\u201d said Mercedes Simonds of the Cape Coral Police Department. \u201cWhether it\u2019s speeding or some other behavior, that\u2019s why we\u2019re out there.\u201d<\/p>\n Officers have increased patrols in the area in response. Multiple drivers have already been pulled over in recent days as part of the heightened enforcement effort.<\/p>\n Residents say they appreciate the increased police presence and hope it will prevent future crashes.<\/p>\n \u201cI just hope the city steps in and does something so it doesn\u2019t come to that for people,\u201d Meurlot said, referring to concerns that repeated incidents could push residents to consider moving.<\/p>\n Police have not released updated figures on how many drivers have been cited since the two crashes, but records have been requested.<\/p>\n Officials continue to urge drivers to obey posted speed limits and remain cautious while traveling through residential neighborhoods.<\/p>\n DOWNLOAD\u202fthe free\u202fGulf Coast News app<\/a>\u202ffor your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app<\/a> to stream news, entertainment and original programming on your TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two recent crashes on the same Cape Coral street have raised concerns among residents and prompted police to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198634,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[2954,209,211,210,26537,220,91951,1896,1776,2675,705,104,213,677,132,2171,1164,732],"class_list":["post-198633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-area","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-cape-coral-street","tag-car","tag-chris-merlot","tag-concern","tag-crash","tag-driver","tag-enforcement","tag-entertainment","tag-late-news","tag-neighborhood","tag-police","tag-resident","tag-speeding","tag-vehicle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}