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DAVID KARPAfter a fatal accident, Pam Iorio says enforcing speed limits is not enough. "I think you have to look at roadway design."
TAMPA - Today, a driver can cruise along Bayshore Boulevard for 9 miles without tapping the brakes.
But that could change.
Mayor Pam Iorio created a task force Wednesday to improve safety on Tampa's grand boulevard, and she talked tough about making cars slow down.
"If it takes people a little bit longer to get from downtown to Gandy Boulevard, it's worth it," she said.
Iorio said the city needs to physically change Bayshore Boulevard. And that could mean building walkways where people cross. Or adding traffic lights, or changing the landscaping.
"It just needs to be done," Iorio said.
The mayor will leave the recommendations to her task force, which will include traffic engineers, police and neighborhood groups.
She created it the day after 39-year-old Melissa McKenzie died on Bayshore, struck by a motorcycle during her morning run.
The crash was "just horrible," Iorio said.
Like thousands, Iorio has a personal connection to Bayshore. She sometimes walks there, and her husband goes on long bike rides through Tampa every weekend, often riding down Bayshore Boulevard.
When he leaves, Iorio tells him: Be careful.
Other runners touched by McKenzie's death plan a run in her honor, in hopes of providing financial assistance to her husband and 14-year-old son. The run could also raise awareness of traffic on Bayshore. It will be 9 miles long - the distance McKenzie planned to run Tuesday as she crossed Bayshore Boulevard from W El Prado Boulevard.
McKenzie's husband, Billy, learned about the memorial run Wednesday afternoon and wept.
"Oh, thank you. Thank you. That is so nice. Melissa would have liked that," he said.
Other runners were glad the crash had moved the mayor to act.
"It makes me very angry," said Michael Benson, a Tampa runner who's training for his 20th marathon. "I don't know what they can do, but it's time to do something."
Last year, there were two fatal crashes on Bayshore, with about 160 other crashes and 725 citations written, Iorio said.
More enforcement of speed limits won't solve the problem, Iorio said. Even with an aggressive campaign, an officer probably would not have been ticketing speeders Tuesday at 6:15 a.m., when McKenzie was hit. "I think you have to look at roadway design," she said.
Police estimated the motorcyclist who struck McKenzie was driving his yellow Suzuki 1000 at least 80 mph when the crash occurred.
Authorities have not yet decided whether to press charges against the driver, William R. Napier of Brandon.
Prosecutors are also still weighing charges against Charles Gable Yerrid, the teenage son of prominent Tampa lawyer Steve Yerrid, who collided with a car on Bayshore in August and killed a 33-year-old mother. The younger Yerrid was driving 78 mph, about twice Bayshore's speed limit.
On Wednesday, Iorio had lunch with Steve Yerrid at the exclusive University Club in downtown Tampa. The lunch had nothing to do with his son's case, Iorio said.
Although the Tampa Police Department investigated the crash, the mayor said she had not been involved at all. Because of a conflict with the Hillsborough state attorney, Pinellas prosecutors will decide whether to press charges.
At the lunch, Iorio did talk to Yerrid about Tuesday's crash - the second fatality on Bayshore in six months. The crash was in the news, Iorio said. And both agreed, it was tragic.
- Times staff writer Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler contributed to this report.