‘How many more have to die,’ before changes are made at these dangerous intersections

Manatee County and Palmetto have something in common. They each have an intersection at 23rd Street. Palmetto’s end is at U.S. Business 41 on the approach to downtown Palmetto and the Green Bridge while Manatee County’s intersects with U.S. 41 heading toward the Desoto Bridge.

Both handle high amounts of southbound traffic traveling at a high rate of speed as traffic filters in from the highways toward the middle of town. Each has claimed the life of a Palmetto High School student in the past 12 months. Both students were killed by southbound drivers.

And they are both being targeted for improvements through the Central Manatee Network Alternatives Analysis’ short-term traffic reduction strategies.

You can’t drive directly between the two intersections along 23rd Street, which is broken up by the land between U.S. 41 and U.S. 41 Business.

For residents who are forced to brave crossing through the 23rd Street East and U.S. 41 intersection, finally attempting to resolve a dangerous situation, “is about 100 deaths too late,” one resident said.

Ali Saleh, owner of Ali’s Market, has done business on the northwest corner of the intersection for 30 years. Tucked away behind his counter, Saleh doesn’t see the accidents, but he does hear the screeching tires and eventual sounds of a crash all too often.

“There’s been too many accidents and something should have been done a long time ago,” he said. “How many more have to die? How many lives have to be lost before they do anything?”

According to FDOT crash data, the March 2017 death of 15-year-old Palmetto High School sophomore Myquarios Kelly is the only fatality dating back to at least 2014, though there have been a total of 11 crashes in that same time period. Kelly was killed while trying to cross the road against the green and was struck by a southbound driver. Residents say it’s an all too common occurrence because traffic is flowing too fast from traveling the highway and then encountering their first traffic signal.

Add that speed into how the road curves slightly toward the light and vehicles don’t see the light, “until it’s too late,” Saleh said. “They need to slow traffic way down before this intersection.”

Other residents who cross U.S. 41 to get to Ali’s Market have dubbed the intersection “Vietnam, because it’s a death trap,” said Charles Lomax. “I’ve lost three personal friends to that intersection over the years. There are crashes all the time because traffic going both ways fly through here and people have been getting killed since the 1960s.”

Crash data for a specific intersection is harder to obtain dating back that far, but Palmetto has suffered more than 80 traffic fatalities since 1977, according to citydata.com.

Residents say another traffic light farther to the south, or at least a flashing sign warning of the intersection ahead, would be a start, but for Lomax, separating the pedestrians from the vehicles altogether is the only solution.

“They need to have an overpass through here,” he said. “Every big city uses them to separate vehicles from pedestrians and it works. It’s not like they don’t have the money. They got it, they just don’t want to spend it.”

The city of Palmetto has a different problem at its intersection at 23rd Street West and U.S. Business 41. There is no traffic signal to manage the intersection and drivers trying to enter Business 41 from 23rd take their lives, and other lives, into their hands with almost every attempt. It’s a different scenario, but the problem is the same: drivers going too fast either coming south from St. Petersburg or heading north toward the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.

In October, 17-year-old Palmetto High School senior Holli Stanek lost her life trying to turn north onto Business 41 from 23rd by crossing the southbound lanes in order to gain access to the northbound lanes. She failed to see an oncoming vehicle, which struck her own. She died later at Blake Memorial Hospital.

It’s unclear just how far FDOT will go to improve the intersections, but both are now on the list of short-term traffic reduction strategies and both may qualify for additional funding as emergency safety projects, Department of Development Services Director Karla Owens said. If that’s the case, safety funding may be adequate to address the bigger picture, but it also may have to compete for other possible projects.

For Palmetto, that includes several sidewalk and bike lane projects at various points in the city. U.S. 41 and 10th Street East near Walmart is another priority area, particularly for sidewalk projects and to create a safer pedestrian and bicycle environment.

“It’s not safe at all out there,” Owens said.

Owens said FDOT would likely implement some traffic calming measures at the 23rd Street West and Business 41 intersection to indicate to motorists that drivers are transitioning from highway to city. What that entails and how sophisticated it may be, will depend on the level of overall funding.

“They will have to be looked at more specifically for a specific project,” Owens said. “If they give us X amount of dollars for all of these intersections, then we would look more closely at what is needed there.”

When it comes to the 23rd Street East and U.S. 41 intersection on the approach to the Desoto Bridge, residents want more action and fewer excuses. It’s an older neighborhood where residents have lived for decades and have only seen it get worse. Lomax said he’s lost three friends to the intersection over the years and many other residents have stories of a lost friend or near misses.

“Something has to be done to avoid another tragedy,” said Palmetto Mayor Shirley Groover Bryant. “A lot of these safety things would be a tremendous benefit to the city.”

This story was originally published March 6, 2018 at 3:30 PM with the headline "‘How many more have to die,’ before changes are made at these dangerous intersections."