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Published on Thursday, January 29, 2004
in the WCJB.com
Two thousand three was a record setting year for traffic deaths on Marion County highways. And officials have been scrambling this year to keep that number from going higher. Unfortunately, officials say it appears that trend will continue into 2004.
"January's been pretty terrible," says Lieutenant Michael Thomas of the Florida Highway Patrol. "We're up to eight fatalities. The same time last year, we had three." And by year's end, Marion County had 118 -- a new record.
"There's a crisis and we're going to address it across the board," says County Commissioner Steve Henning. Commissioners say a mix of complaints and crash reports are painting a good picture of Marion County's trouble spots. And they say there are some quick fixes on the way to force drivers to watch out for each other such as changing right of ways, changing turn lanes, widening of the roads, stop signs, and traffic signals.
But Commissioner Jim Payton also says he plans on pushing long-term solutions like widening side roads around highways like State Road 40, State Road 200, and Maricamp Road (Highway 464) to spread traffic out.
"We would like to see some more collector roads," says Payton. "Something to take the pressure off the primary arteries." And commissioners expect to see traffic changes in just a few weeks -- saying their plans are on a 'government fast track' of sorts.
"It's not something like so many initiatives by government that's going to happen six months from now," says Payton. "We don't think we can wait. There's too much carnage on our highways."
One plan that's already gone into effect is law enforcement's STEER program -- designed to crack down on traffic violations. But judging by the numbers it doesn't look like the program alone is enough.