After a teenager dies trying to cross Balm Riverview Road south of Riverview High, neighbors and school officials lobby to protect people on foot and bike.
By JAY CRIDLIN
Published April 30, 2004
RIVERVIEW - Sandra Gorman knew the sidewalk crossing was unsafe the first time she walked her dogs up Balm Riverview Road to a field near Riverview High School to play fetch.
There were no pedestrian crossing signs. No crosswalk markings, either. And trees blocked the line of sight for northbound drivers.
When a Riverview student who was crossing Balm Riverview died Monday after being struck by a car, Gorman, a traffic engineer, had had enough. She picked up her traffic safety manual and headed to Tuesday's monthly meeting of her homeowners association.
"There should be a crosswalk here," said Gorman, who addresses road safety issues for a private engineering firm. "It's just a matter of paint and some signs."
County, school and police investigations have homed in on the death of 17-year-old Thomas Michael Priddy. Now, residents of the nearby Moss Creek subdivision, including Gorman, are circulating a petition for the county to improve safety at the sidewalk crossing near the subdivision as soon as possible.
"There's no indication that there's a crosswalk," said William Dibble, president of the Moss Creek Homeowners Association, which has posted the petition on its Web site, www.mosscreekhoa.us
It would help, Dibble said, "if we could at least get some lines on the road and maybe some pedestrian foot signs placed up there."
Priddy was steering his bicycle west across Balm Riverview Road as another student, 17-year-old David L. Falisevac II, left Moss Creek heading north on the same road.
Police said Falisevac slammed on the brakes on his 1990 Mustang but couldn't stop in time to avoid hitting Priddy, who died at the scene.
The Hillsborough County sheriff's investigation is ongoing; no charges have been filed against Falisevac.
According to the Sheriff's Office, before Monday's crash, there had been 106 accidents since the beginning of 2003 on Balm Riverview Road, which stretches about 8 miles from U.S. 301 to County Road 672. Two involved pedestrians, and none involved bicycles. Only one, a single-car crash at Rhodine Road, was fatal. There has also been only one crash near the intersection of Balm Riverview and Shady Lane, a minor fender-bender between two cars in March.
Still, some residents are not convinced that the crossing, south of Riverview High, is safe. Jim Nasworthy, who has lived in the neighborhood for more than 30 years, blames the crossing for Monday's accident.
"There needs to be something done," he said.
County school officials agree. The morning after the crash, the school district's safety office asked Hillsborough County's transportation department to evaluate the site. "That's a dangerous crossing," said school district spokesman Mark Hart, who spent Tuesday at the school. "At a minimum, we'd like to see a crosswalk there. We'd like to see signage both northbound and southbound indicating that it's a pedestrian crossing."
Public works director Bob Gordon said he has some concerns about the crossing. The section of the sidewalk abutting the east side of the road is about 20 feet longer than called for by the original county plans, leading pedestrians almost directly into the road. Gordon said it is unclear how the sidewalk got extended to the road.
"We've checked our records, and it wasn't built by our in-house forces," Gordon said.
Gordon said the trees that partially obscure the line of sight from the south were trimmed on Wednesday, and engineers will study whether the posted speed, 45 mph, is too high.
County officials will also examine the possibility of moving the sidewalk farther north, so that the crossing lies at the intersection of Balm Riverview and Shady Lane.
Hillsborough County is more than two years into a countywide plan to improve pedestrian safety at all public schools with such measures as new speed limit signs. As a result of the crash, Gordon said a previously scheduled meeting with Riverview High officials will likely take place sooner than later.
As officials took notes at the crossing, students at Riverview High mourned the death of a freshman they barely knew.
A quiet youth, Priddy, who enjoyed hunting and art, had improved his grades since moving to Florida from Benton, Ill. He attended summer school last year at East Bay High School, but this was his first year at Riverview.
Priddy lived less than 3 miles south of Riverview High on a street near Balm Riverview. His mother normally drove him to school, but she was in Illinois this week on family business. Priddy instead caught a ride to school each morning with his stepfather's boss and rode his 21-speed mountain bike home.
On Tuesday, Riverview principal Bob Heilmann collected letters and thoughts that students shared with grief counselors and planned to deliver them to Priddy's family. Some students placed flowers and a sign at the accident scene.
"He had more friends than he knew," Heilmann said of the freshman, described by family members as a loner in his first year at Riverview High. "They are remembering not that he was quiet, but that he was a nice boy."
Hart, of the school district, said that more than 100 students sought counseling after the accident.
"There seems to be a common understanding that this was a tragic accident and that the driver was not at fault," Hart said. "People are mourning the loss of the victim, but they're also very concerned about their friend."
The family planned to bury the teenager in Illinois, his longtime home. Heilmann said the family has asked those wanting to honor Priddy's memory to donate to the Make-A-Wish Foundation or the Shriners Hospital for Children.
- Staff writers Saundra Amrhein and Letitia Stein contributed to this report. Jay Cridlin can be reached at 661-2442 or cridlin@sptimes.com
