Following added statistical review, Police Commission members are expected to decide how best to remedy a speeding problem on Pearl Street in Sandy Hook - possibly through the installation of speed tables on the residential connector road that links Washington Avenue to Philo Curtis Road. The 3,600-foot-long curving road lies on hilly terrain.

Police Chief James Viadero said last week that Police Commission members will be provided with additional data on current traffic volumes and traffic speeds on Queen Street, which was requested by commission member Brian Budd earlier this month for the sake of comparison in deciding whether installing speed tables on Pearl Street is the best speed-control solution for that street.

The town installed five speed tables on Queen Street and four speed tables on Key Rock Road to reduce traffic speeds in those residential neighborhoods. Police Commission members have been reviewing data on the effect speed tables have had on Queen Street and Key Rock Road.

A group of Pearl Street residents attended a Police Commission session earlier this month to discuss the speeding issue, and residents raised the speeding problem with the commission more than a year ago.

Herman Valentin of 9 Pearl Street has spearheaded that neighborhood's drive to slow down motorists on that road. Mr Valentin told commission members that the speeding problem is worse among drivers traveling downhill on the road in an east-to-west direction.

"A lot of people speed... Something is going to happen... It's going to get worse," he said.

Police Commission members are considering whether temporary speed tables should be installed on Pearl Street as a means to gauge whether permanent speed tables should be placed there. Chief Viadero said the Police Commission will have the additional Queen Street traffic data requested when they meet on December 6.

During the daily traffic rush periods, many motorists use Pearl Street as an alternate route to avoid the traffic congestion that occurs on Berkshire Road near Newtown High School and near the Exit 11 interchange of Interstate 84.

The heaviest traffic on Pearl Street occurs on weekdays between 7 and 8 am, and between 4 and 7 pm, according to police traffic studies. Pearl Street area residents have repeatedly told Police Commission members that much of that traffic greatly exceeds the posted limit of 25 miles per hour, endangering pedestrians in the area.

Besides conducting traffic studies on Pearl Street, police have heightened their enforcement there through radar patrols and by using electronic displays posted to inform motorists of their travel speed, compared to the posted speed limit.

In the past, the Police Commission has reviewed extensive data on speeding problems in a given area before deciding whether installing speed tables is actually the best solution to resolve the problem. The commission has an elaborate policy on "traffic calming" that it uses in reviewing residents' requests on solving traffic problems.