RANDY THOMSON/Acorn Newspapers THE SIGN SAYS IT ALL—Brian LeBoeuf sometimes stands in the street in front of his house with a homemade sign because, along with many of his neighbors on Crater Street in Simi Valley, he’s so frustrated with speeders. According to Brian, drivers often hit 50 mph in the 25-mph zone. Several dogs and cats have been killed; one of the dogs was run over in front of his owner’s children. A neighbor’s life has been threatened, and Brian didn’t want his face in the photo for fear of reprisals. Brian LeBoeuf is tired of cars racing down Crater Street. He became so fed up with speeders on his residential street that he stepped out in front of one on a recent Saturday morning.

He’d heard the all-too-familiar revving engine of a speeding car, and he planted himself in the middle of the street. The car skidded to a halt, coming within inches of hitting LeBoeuf. Face to face with the driver, he yelled at her to slow down. She backed up, drove around him and sped away.

LeBoeuf admitted that was a crazy move. But it proved just how desperate he’s become to stop speeders on his street, he said.

He recently pleaded his case to the Simi Valley City Council. Mayor Paul Miller asked the police chief to look into the matter and get some help for the residents.

Crater Street is the closest north-south thoroughfare paralleling Sequoia Avenue between Los Angeles and Royal avenues. LeBoeuf said his street is way too tempting a route for lead-footed drivers wishing to avoid a higher profile street and police radar guns.

The street’s speed limit is 25 mph, but the seven-year resident said he’s clocked drivers going 50 mph or more. He’s repeatedly complained to the police department over the last several months. And although they posted an officer on the street for a couple of days, in the long run it didn’t deter speeders: they simply slowed down when the officers were present and speeded up when they were not.

Police Sgt. Stephanie Shannon said officers have written a “significant number of citations” on Crater Street and that “over 90 percent of them are speed related.”

Although they’re trying to identify repeat violators, she said, they can’t be there constantly.

Speeding drivers on Crater Street are an everyday occurrence, said resident Patty Meek. She fears for the safety of her 80-year-old mother and her 9-year-old grandson, who plays with friends in front of the house.

“It’s crazy in the morning,” she said. “It’s gotten out of control.”

Meek thinks the culprits are students from nearby Apollo High School and the teens who live in the area.

But LeBoeuf points to the students of the cosmetology school at the corner of Crater Street and Los Angeles Avenue because the speeding cars often coincide with the time the school’s classes begin and end. He’s asked Simi Valley Adult School administrators more times than he can remember to remind their students to obey the speed limit.

At the request of a school administrator, he supplied the vehicle descriptions and license plate numbers of the offending cars. But he hasn’t received a reply.

“It keeps happening every day,” LeBoeuf said. “When you keep seeing them speeding, it’s a hell of a slap in the face.”

Jeanette O’Brien, a spokeswoman for the adult school, said, “It’s not necessarily one of our students. It could be anyone.”

O’Brien said in class orientation and at some lectures, students nonetheless are given a “strong reminder” to be cautious when driving. But she didn’t know if obeying the speed limit on residential streets was specifically mentioned to them.

Even so, the police, not school officials, are the ones responsible for enforcing speed laws, she said.

Residents reminding drivers to obey the speed limit hasn’t seemed to help either. LeBoeuf often holds up a 3-foot handmade speed limit sign, but cars simply race past him. Another Crater Street resident put up a sign advising drivers that children are playing. LeBoeuf said someone ran over it.

The residents also said many of the speeding drivers are defying the four-way stop sign at Barnes and Crater streets, and within the last year they’ve killed two animals. Residents are afraid a child or an elderly person will be next.

They’ve asked the city to install speed humps, but after counting the number of vehicles, the city said the speed humps weren’t warranted, according to Janette Tonsbeek, an 18-year resident of the street.

“I call it Crater Speedway,” she said. “I think that there’s plenty of traffic on the street. They’re just going to wait until somebody gets hurt.”

To have speed humps installed requires that the average daily traffic on a typical residential street be 2,000 vehicles or more, with 85 percent of drivers exceeding the speed limit. The approval of the city council is also required, an official said.