KANNAPOLIS — Craig Spears lives on a race track.Six months ago, a car took out a section of picket fence, tore
through his front yard, chipped the driveway crossing it and sped away.
Two weeks ago, another car
didn’t make it as far. Running off the road at nearly 80 mph, it splintered a utility
pole, knocked down a sign, struck an embankment and flew several feet into the air. The
1993 Honda wrapped around one of two silver maples in his neighbor’s front yard. A
girl thrown from the car nearly lost her life. Two others went to the hospital.
It took two wreckers just to pull
the car from the tree.
The more than two dozen families
who live along southern Kannpolis’ Greenview Drive — known to high schoolers as
“Tickle Hill” for its sharp grades — say such events happen too often. They
want something done.
“We’re basically getting
tired of the property damage and the wrecks through here,” Steve Lentz said.
“We’re asking for speed humps. Charlotte’s full of them. If they can do
them in Charlotte, we can do them here.”
Lentz has gathered a list of about
30 signatures and given it to Kannapolis police. Already, police have parked a patrol car
by Greenview Drive for several days and placed a speed radar on a trailer there.
Lentz and others say they would
rather the city government flatten the street’s hills, but they’re aware that
would cost much more. Spears is unsure of how effective speed humps might be.
“I don’t know if a speed
hump will help or not,” Spears said. “If someone comes over that hill, that
would get them airborne for sure.”
Police Chief Paul Brown has
responded with a letter, and police may meet with residents to talk about the matter,
Lentz said.
“You can’t really expect
the police to sit out here 24 hours a day,” Lentz said. “We’re going to
have to physically put something out there to slow them down.”
Brown has said that speed humps
— where the road is raised several inches for a span of about five feet — might
be an effective way to reduce speeding. The posted speed limit there is 25 mph, and the
road is already heavily patrolled, he said.
Saturday, 16-year-old Ann Marie
My, who was in the wreck two weeks ago, remained in serious condition in the intensive
care unit at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte. Reeves, My and another girl had left
A.L. Brown High School shortly before the accident during one of the school’s three
lunch periods.
The driver in the Oct. 15
accident, 18-year-old Titus Elder Reeves, has not been charged, Lt. David James said.
Police are waiting to find out if My lives. If she doesn’t, Reeves could face a
charge of manslaughter, James said.
“We went over Friday,”
he said. “She’s still very serious.”
The person who had let Reeves
borrow the car, Karen Byers Gibson, hasn’t been charged either.
Greenview Drive residents still
recall an automobile that struck a child on a bicycle several years ago, and another that
hit and killed a woman delivering phone books.
Many say they’re afraid to
back out of their driveways. Ed Silliman has laid a gravel, circular drive in his front
yard so he can pull out front first.
“We need something bad done
over here,” Petrea said.
“It’s a wonder I
haven’t been hit backing out,”said Bell Cline, who lives across the street from
Silliman. “I thank the good Lord everyday.” |
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