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Letter to the editor

City to revisit traffic-calming options after fatal crash

By DEMORRIS A. LEE
Published June 13, 2007

CLEARWATER - Since 1999, residents of the Morningside-Meadows community in east Clearwater have complained about the drivers who zoom through their streets to avoid traffic on U.S. 19 or Belcher Road.

Saturday evening, the very thing residents had long feared happened. Two men died after their speeding car went out of control on Stewart Boulevard and smashed into an oak tree.

Now the crash may lead to a renewed effort to slow traffic on Stewart Boulevard, which is lined with ranch homes.

Still, some residents are still skeptical.

"They've talked about roundabouts, speed humps, " said Chris Young, who lives across the street from the tree, which didn't budge when a Ford Mustang disintegrated around it. "All they do is talk about it, but nothing ever really gets done."

On Tuesday, however, Mayor Frank Hibbard said the city may be able to implement some temporary measures until a permanent plan materializes in 2009.

Hibbard noted that Morningside-Meadows residents spoke of traffic-calming when he spoke with the group at its last meeting. He said he plans to bring up a discussion with the City Council on Monday.

One option could include the installation of speed tables, which are stretches of the road where the pavement is raised slightly, prompting drivers to slow down as they pass over them.

"The city manager Bill Horne and I talked about it this morning (Tuesday), and we are looking at interim steps we can take, " Hibbard said. "In the interim, we can use some speed tables. But we still want to get some feedback from neighbors."

John Quattrocki, a director of the Morningside-Meadows Homeowners Association, said his wife and 7-year-old child saw Saturday's fatal wreck as they prepared to go for a bike ride.

Quattrocki, who met with Hibbard on Tuesday, said he now has a different appreciation for the importance of traffic-calming measures.

"I personally feel the traffic-calming needs to be implemented in full force and needs to be expedited, " Quattrocki said, noting that it doesn't take a car going 70 mph on a road with a 25-mph speed limit to cause a horrible accident. A car traveling 45 mph can do the same damage, he said.

In early 2000, residents in Morningside-Meadows agreed to a traffic-calming program offered by the city. Community leaders had to get 65 percent of homeowners to agree to a plan before the city would move forward.

Although Morningside-Meadows met that criteria, city officials prioritized each neighborhood's need for the work according to 36 months' worth of crash data. Officials ranked Morningside-Meadows fifth of seven communities in line for the work.

In 2002, city officials estimated that the work would be done in 2006-07.

But that hasn't happened yet.

Currently, a traffic circle is scheduled to be installed at Stewart and Harn boulevards in January 2009. The intersection at Chinaberry and Glenmoor roads also is to be reconfigured to decrease speed. The project is to take three months. In June 2009, additional traffic-calming measures, including the planting of more trees in medians, is expected to take place.

Meanwhile, friends of the two men killed Saturday plan to hold a candlelight vigil at the tree at 7 p.m. Friday.

The driver was Thomas Moffat, 35, of 11029 130th Ave. N in Largo.

His passenger, Christopher Roy Phillips, 32, also was pronounced dead at the scene, which was just around the corner from his home at 2501 Harn Blvd.

Tuesday, a makeshift memorial had been erected at the base of the tree. A picture of Phillips was stapled to the tree's trunk, where the bark had been torn away by the crash.

"We all love you and miss you. RIP" was written on the picture. Two silver metal crosses with both men's names were staked in the ground. Red and white roses, carnations, a compact disc and notes lay on the ground underneath them.

"It's tough, it's tough on our neighborhood, " said Young, whose husband put a sheet over one of the men until rescue workers arrived. "They made a bad decision. Everybody makes bad decisions. But their decision may have cost them their lives."

Demorris A. Lee can be reached at dalee@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4177.

[Last modified June 12, 2007, 21:37:06]