Traffic fatality prompts safety concerns

When Tara Preserve resident Darby Connor travels the winding, two-lane section of Tara Boulevard south of Tara Preserve Lane, he has flashbacks of past wrecks.

A vehicle crashed into a newly installed “Neighborhood Watch” sign and some bushes at the northeast corner of Tara Boulevard and Linger Lodge Road last month.

In 2010, farther north, a truck drove over the curb at a bend in the road and ended up submerged in a pond.

And on June 4, 37-year-old Adam Pitre died from injuries sustained in a May 31 single-car crash in which he failed to negotiate the curve properly, according to a Florida Highway Patrol report. His 2016 Cadillac jumped a curb just south of Tara Preserve Lane and hit a tree.

His passenger, 35-year-old Jessica McCracken, of Seminole, remained in serious condition as of June 13.

“We’ve got to do something to slow traffic on this two-lane piece of Tara Preserve,” Connor said, noting drivers come up quickly from a straight four-lane Tara Boulevard into the curvy Tara Preserve section. “We have accidents every single year. It’s not the first time we’ve had injuries, but this sadly resulted in death.”

The two-lane section of Tara Boulevard runs from just south from about Tara Preserve Lane less than a mile to Linger Lodge Road and then southward until the roadway dead-ends.

Connor said speed tables, which are longer than speed bumps and flat on the top, would slow down traffic. The addition of flashing warning lights, alerting drivers to the oncoming curves ahead, also could have an impact.

“They’ve got to do something here,” resident Doug Agren said.  “It’s needed.”

Resident Dave Wyble and his wife, Elizabeth, walk daily on the sidewalk of that section of roadway. About five years ago, they were nearly hit by a car — at the exact location of the most recent wreck — after a vehicle struck and jumped the curb.

“She hit the tree before she hit us,” Wyble said. “We’ve been here 13 years and one of the things that hasn’t changed is that people speed here.”

Not everyone agrees. Larry Baker, who lives in the River Place neighborhood at the southernmost end of Tara Boulevard, south of Linger Lodge Road, drives Tara Boulevard daily to go north to State Road 70. He witnesses tailgating and some speeding, but said drivers generally follow the rules. He said speed bumps, speed tables or other traffic-calming measures will be more of an annoyance to drivers than a deterrent.

“They don’t do you any good,” Baker said. “The guy who wants to go 60 isn’t going to feel them (speed tables) as we do going 25. I don’t think there’s a lot to do except to educate people. Don’t be texting. Don’t be going 40, 45. It seems like a real lazy little road, but it does have all those curves. It is a tricky little road.”

Having Manatee County Sheriff’s Office conduct patrols, he said, is the most effective way to have drivers pay more attention.

Connor said he has petitioned Manatee County over the years, starting as early as 2010, for safety measures on the two-lane section of the roadway. Manatee County installed temporary speed signs in 2012 and that helped. Connor said the signs were removed after a month, though, following resident complaints.

Ron Schulhofer, Manatee County’s director of public works, called the most recent crash tragic and said the county likely won’t receive a full report on its cause for a few weeks. When the county gets the report, it will review roadway conditions.

“Roadways are designed and constructed to accommodate anticipated traffic volumes, speeds and conditions,” Schulhofer said. “We have an annual countywide process to review crash reports from law enforcement for any needed safety improvements. In addition, we pay particular attention to serious crashes reported to us when we receive them. Typically, we don’t have the full report for a few weeks if there were significant injuries or fatalities. When received we will evaluate. However, based on the story we heard, it looks like a single vehicle accident, failed to properly negotiate a curve.”

Connor said he again will begin lobbying county officials for improvements. He said statistics compiled by the Tara Community Development District show three wrecks a year on that stretch of road.

The Tara CDD, which maintains common area landscaping in that area, spends up to $3,000 annually replacing damaged sod, shrubbery and trees, said Connor, a CDD supervisor.