Late Thursday, March 31, this announcement was posted on the Town of Wake Forest’s Facebook page: “Earlier today, a nine-year-old child suffered minor injuries when he was struck by a vehicle in a crosswalk along Heritage Lake Road. Our thoughts and prayers are with the child and his family, and we are so very thankful that his injuries were not more serious – or even fatal.” (The family later reported his injuries included bruises and being “quite terrified.”)
The Facebook post then went on to ask the Wake Forest community to respect the speed limit – 35 mph – on Heritage Lake Road and all other Heritage and town subdivision streets.
Wake Forest police officers regularly ticket drivers on Heritage Lake Road for driving 61 mph or more. After the accident Thursday and in similar situations with no injuries, those officers have told neighbors about the speeding and at least one has said, “Somebody is going to get killed if they continue to speed on this street.
Speeding is particularly a problem on Heritage Heights Lane where Thursday’s incident happened because drivers leaving Heritage Lake Road continue to speed down a hill and around a curve where the crosswalk is. And Heritage Heights Lane is a cul-de-sac road. There is no intersection on the other end.
Apparently the speeders have not heard the warnings because of an incident this week. The couple who were walking with their 9-year-old grandnephew when he was hit last week finally decided to try to cross the street to get to the Smith Creek Greenway to take their usual walk. The man went ahead on the crosswalk and then had to stop because there were fast-moving cars going by either side of him. He had looked both ways and saw there was no traffic approaching the crosswalk.
Also they told the Gazette that they had stopped taking her mother, the 9-year-old child’s grandmother, for walks on the greenway because, with her scooter and a disability it was too dangerous. She had always looked forward to the walks, especially if they included one or more grandchildren.
Ron Garrett, an assistant division traffic engineer with the NCDOT Division 5 in Durham, has been at the crosswalk and talked with neighbors before last week’s incident. After the child was hit and hurt, he sent a message of sympathy to the family and asked the concerned family and neighbors “. . . that you remain vigilant during the interim of us performing our investigation to determine what traffic control devices may be warranted to help improve safety in this vicinity, especially the crossing at this intersection.” He also asked that people tell him about similar incidents.
Garrett called the Gazette today and said they are considering replacing the current crosswalk, a previous model, with a new model, a high-visibility crosswalk with more lines, two 36-inch signs advising drivers they are approaching a crosswalk and two signs next to the crosswalk with arrows pointing diagonally at the crosswalk. He also said he would be working with the town on the crosswalk. He talked about the difficulties of traffic control when drivers typically exceed the speed limit.
On Heritage Lake Road, on Heritage Heights Lane, on all Heritage subdivision roads and in all Wake Forest subdivisions the speed limit is 35 mph except where otherwise noted.
Today Crabtree sent a message to the Gazette underlining and reiterating his pleas and the pleas of others for drivers to reduce their speed. “In regard to the situation along Heritage Lake Road, WFP officers work speed enforcement in the area frequently. Please encourage your readers to call the police department any time they observe traffic violations. Too often, people register their complaints and observations on social media but fail to report them to police.”
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Update on the bypass superstreet U-turn
Wake Forest Communications Director Bill Crabtree shared this update about the new superstreet intersection on the N.C. 98 Bypass at South Franklin Street late Tuesday afternoon:
“I just heard back from Joe Guckavan (Wake Forest’s Director of Engineering). According to Joe, today’s meeting with NCDOT meeting went well. DOT is planning to remove all vegetation and lower the ground elevation of the median strip. In addition they are in the process of evaluating the situation to determine if a signal at the U-turn is warranted.
“It may take several weeks before they receive results and then they will need to make a determination and prepare a report.
I will share more information as it becomes available.”
This morning (Wednesday) he briefly reported: “I checked with Joe Guckavan and he says the RCI intersections have specific design standards that would not allow such an extension. Also, it would move the turn around too close to the South Main Street/US 1A intersection which would cause additional problems.” The Gazette had asked if the western U-turn could be extended 200 or 300 feet to allow for a better sight distance.
The Gazette had requested Crabtree ask Wake Forest Fire Chief Ron Early and Wake Forest Police Chief Jeff Leonard several questions about that superstreet U-turn on the west side of the bypass and South Franklin Street intersection. Those questions included whether they or their staff had inspected the U-turn and whether they concluded it was safe or unsafe. They obviously had inspected and concluded it was unsafe since Guckavan was dispatched to Raleigh to meet with state Department of Transportation officials within a week or so of the U-turn being built.
With Crabtree’s help, the Gazette will continue to update our readers on the situation.
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21 Responses
Thanks! Details matter!
Well, does the state have something against effective crosswalks with flashing lights? There were lots of these types of crosswalks— esp on busy roads — in Canberra. Australia, when I lived there. And, I don’t remember ever hearing about pedestrians being hit by cars in Canberra (a much larger place than Wake Forest).
Apparently a crosswalk with flashing lights like the one near Wake Forest High School is expensive and too expensive for a crosswalk like that on Heritage Heights which has fewer users.
I would love to know more on how NCDOT is able to assign a monetary value of a life with the costs involved with expensive crosswalks.
I’d love to see the developer of Heritage come back & fix that crosswalk. Not because he had to, but bc he actually cares about the people who live here. I think folks would think highly of him if he did. People In Wake Forest may be more supportive of his next project.
Every night from 8:00 pm on there is speeding going on. I have reported it to the police but it still goes on. I can’t be the only one hearing this going on. Why aren’t people reporting this.
It’s not a bypass anymore. Install speed bumps. Put controls on school car pools
The Super U turn is highly dangerous and you can barely see any on coming traffic come from South Main on 98 at 60 or 70mph then bam you see them and you almost get hit. I been almost hit three times since it has opened and during rush hour you can make a u turn it’s takes forever. Need a light or go back to having a light at Franklin St to allow a safe turn. This needs to be addressed to make it safe for the public to travel. I tell my kids they can’t use the u turn because it’s unsafe to drive and they are inexperienced driver’s
Why can’t the town put in the type of very effective crossing lights with a button to press that are in Rolesville? The sign flashes when a pedestrian pushes the button to cross. I doubt the changes discussed in this article will make any significant difference. And, the traffic will soon be MUCH worse, once every occupant of the massive apt complex across from Gateway Commons is also driving down Heritage Lake Rd. A crosswalk with a sign that flashes when pedestrians are in the crosswalk or a pedestrian bridge over the road is needed.
You will have to translate. You aren’t in PA anymore Toto…
Super U turns, bad idea and bad in practice. Dash across 2 lanes of high speed oncoming traffic, come to a dead stop, then attempt a U turn in the face of 2 lanes of high speed traffic. What could possibly go wrong?
Signals at the uturn spots eliminate that risk. The 401 bypass around Rolesville is set up like this.
A U turn light like on 401 addresses only half the risk. A driver still must negotiate rapid acceleration, a safe merge, and a lane change or two in a very short distance to make it to the U turn light.
I know NCDOT has their reasons, but the thought of making a U-turn where the speed limit is 55 mph always scares me. I have been having to do that to go west on the Calvin Jones Highway/98 bypass whenever I exit from Siena Drive on the south side of the bypass.
I have lived in Heritage since 2004 and have seen both the speed and volume increase greatly on Heritage Lake Rd. There are a lot just cutting threw the neighboorhood. All-way stops at the intersections would both slow down traffic, better protect crosswalks, and dissuade some of the traffic. I have thought the street was dangerous for years and was thankful for the stoplight at Heritage Club. It is time to do something.
The amount of cut through drivers up & down Marshall Farm St. going from Rogers to Chalk is mind-blowing bc since they don’t live on this street they don’t take the posted speed limits seriously. Don’t even get me started on the number of cars that roll though the stop signs at designated school bus stops on Marshall Farm as well. ?
Why can’t W.F. afford them fancy bike lanes? You know the ones. They that ain’t no cars parked in ’em?
One question I would have liked asked: ” Why in blue blazes (kids…look it up) are the town engineers talking to the Durham Distruct of the NCDOT?”
Answer: Budget cuts. Where else might you expect tax money to go ?
Sports stadiums in the gentrified south Raleigh? As they say in Pa…
“Get atta tahn!”
The roads in question are state roads, not town.
The town engineer did talk with the state DOT…Durham district, per Wake Forest Gazette
The town engineer went to Raleigh to speak with DOT about the superstreet U-turn on the bypass at Franklin Street.
A DOT engineer from the Durham office for District 5 — DOT breaks the state into districts — has been on the scene at Heritage Heights Lane where a 9-year-old was struck by a speeding truck, and he has been considering ways to make the crosswalk on Heritage Heights safer for pedestrians.
It is District 5, which the main office of is based in Durham and the district covers our area.