Graham Cracker Mess Leads to Traffic Stop Amid Spring Break Crowds

A driver pulled over near the intersection of Kearns Boulevard and Sidewinder Drive on March 19 told Park City Police Department officers she had been cleaning up a graham cracker mess in her lap, according to public police logs. The department logged the 5:23 p.m. stop as "careless driving," with police noting that "the driver claimed she was cleaning up a mess in her lap from a graham cracker."

The Park City Police Department logged a series of cases involving drivers as the community remained busy with spring break crowds. The graham cracker stop was not an isolated moment. Officers stopped two drivers within an hour of each other in the 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. hours of March 19 in cases involving some sort of suspected distracted driving, including a stop at 4:24 p.m. near Park Avenue and Saddle View Way in which an officer indicated the driver was using a cellphone.

Officers in other cases pulled drivers over for failing to stop at stop signs in Park Meadows, a taillight violation seen on Deer Valley Drive, and driving a vehicle without a license plate along the Kearns Boulevard corridor. An officer also pulled over a driver near the intersection of Deer Valley Drive and Bonanza Drive after observing the vehicle failing to stop at a red light.

In another case, reported in the 8 a.m. hour on March 18, someone contacted the department indicating an officer had stopped them in the overnight hours. The person told dispatchers the officer "was really nice, but he didn't give her her passport back," according to public police logs. That case was reported in the area of the 500 block of Swede Alley.

The noise complaints followed a similar pattern. The Park City Police Department received several recent complaints about loudness as the ski industry moves into the final weeks of the season.

Traffic issues like speeding have long been one of the chief law-enforcement complaints of Parkites, and the spring break surge only sharpens that tension. Data showing that traffic in Park City was at its worst levels in years this winter prompted the Park City Council to discuss creating a dedicated city traffic division. Whether a graham cracker or a cellphone is to blame, the blotter from a single March weekend makes clear that distracted driving is not a slow-season problem.