Daytona Beach News-Journal, FL
12-27-07
DeBary residents fight cut-through traffic
By BOB KOSLOW
Staff Writer
DEBARY -- A near-fatal accident on Columbine Trail just before the holidays re-energized a resident's quest to make her neighborhood safer from speeding drivers who use the street as a detour.
Jackie Schwing has six pages of signatures and is still knocking on doors this week to solicit support for stop signs or speed bumps on Columbine and Dogwood trails, two 1/2-mile-long roadways through a 1960s-era residential area.
"They use our neighborhood to avoid the (U.S.) 17-92 and Highbanks (Road) intersection," Schwing said. "They have been speeding up and down here since I moved in seven years ago. If I had known, I would not have bought a home here."
Schwing said she frequently called City Hall a few years ago about speeders but stopped calling when nothing was done. However, after Halley Miller, a 21-year-old Oviedo woman, was hit by a passing sport utility vehicle at 8 p.m. Dec. 19 while she tried to get into her vehicle that was parked on Columbine Trail, Schwing started her petition drive.
"It was just a matter of time before something like this was going to happen. All we want is that something be done so people won't cut through here if they know it won't save them time," Schwing said.
Miller remained in critical condition Wednesday at Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach, a hospital official said. Charges against the 20-year-old female driver of the SUV are pending an investigation and results of blood alcohol tests, according to a Volusia County Sheriff's Office spokesman.
Family and friends have set up a fund at Fairwinds Credit Union to help Miller pay for medical expenses. Donations to the Halley Miller Support Fund can be made at any branch office.
City and law enforcement officials, along with Volusia County traffic engineers, said they are not aware of heavy traffic or speeding vehicles along the trails.
"We had tests done there a few years ago, and it didn't show a need for stop signs," Mayor George Coleman said. "We still need all the facts of the accident to see what needs to be done. If more is needed, I am sure we will do them to protect the people living there."
Deputies have increased patrols through the neighborhood, Sheriff's Office spokesman Brandon Haught said. A traffic count survey is planned and if it shows a high number of vehicles are using the road, the Sheriff's Office might conduct speed limit enforcement or place speed warning trailers in the neighborhood, he said.
City and county officials will get the same information to determine if more action is needed.
Traffic engineers have already been contacted about doing a traffic study, Assistant City Manager Anthony Gonzalez said.
Law enforcement is the best remedy for speeders, Volusia County Public Works Director George Recktenwald said.
Speed bumps, however effective, have their own problems that include slowing emergency response vehicles, increasing the city's liability for vehicle damage, and diverting drivers around the bumps onto lawns in areas that lack curbs.
Speed humps, which are wider and used on residential roadways, and speed bumps, steeper and used in parking lots, are last-resort measures that typically follow extensive studies of traffic volumes, vehicle speeds, driver obedience of traffic laws and pedestrian activity, according to a report by the Iowa State University Center for Transportation Research and Education.