Goatville Seeks Slowdown Help After Fatal Crash

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall: the cars that race down Willow Street and crash into neighbors’ fences.

The collision-prone intersection of Willow and Nicoll, where multiple fences bear the scars of speeding vehicles, wasn’t the focus of Robert Frost’s 1914 poem ​“Mending Fences.”

It was, however, the focus of a conversation between neighbors concerned about reckless driving and city officials tasked with improving traffic safety — held a few days after a driver’s medical emergency led to a fatal ten-car crash involving parked vehicles on Nicoll Street.

Fair Haven/East Rock Alder Claudia Herrera convened about ten local residents on Friday at the nearby corner of Nicoll and Eagle, aiming to communicate concerns to Traffic, Transportation, and Parking Director Sandeep Aysola, Police Chief Karl Jacobson, and Newhallville/East Rock police district manager Sgt. Jarrell Lowery.

The ten-car crash last Tuesday, which killed driver Christopher Andreozzi, was ​“different from normal speeding,” said Jacobson. The driver appeared to have had a sudden medical incident that caused the collision. In fact, Jacobson said, the incident could have been far worse. ​“The cars that got hit helped save lives.”

Though the area’s most recent car crash seemed to be an outlier, neighbors attested on Friday that cars speed through the area all the time — especially cars coming down Willow Street from the highway.

Herrera said she receives about ten emails per week about reckless driving.

“This goes from highway to totally residential very fast,” agreed Jacobson.

Neighbors said that the intersection of Willow and Nicoll is especially dangerous. Since January of this year, that intersection has seen three car crashes — two in the last month, according to Lowery.

“I see crashes all the time,” Eva Geertz, who has lived at Willow and Nicoll for over two decades. The problem of dangerous driving isn’t a new one, according to Geertz. About 15 years ago, ​“I have had a car go right through the gate to my house,” she said. ​“Early in the morning that day, we heard this big thud,” she later recounted. ​“We go out and see a car driving away, having just hit our fence.” That moment made clear to her ​“the potential for losing your house in a car crash” at that intersection. She worries especially for the little kids who play in her neighbors’ yards.

Geertz has mended her fence since that incident, and hasn’t experienced anything similar since. But the fences of nearby haven’t fared as well. Geertz said she’s noticed neighbors replacing a fence across the street from her house three times in the last year or so after car crashes. And the fence a few houses down from hers is still warped in multiple directions from what Geertz believes could only have been speeding vehicles.

Jacobson outlined measures the police department can take to address driving concerns.

“Last fall, I doubled the size of our motor unit. Our motor vehicle stops are up 92 percent,” he said. 

He added that the department’s newly-acquired StarChase technology allows officers to attach GPS tags to racing vehicles, which will help track down reckless drivers without violating the department’s policy against car chases. And he plans to use drones and cameras to catch drivers, he said. ​“We’re gonna make it known: don’t mess around here.”

“We lose more people to traffic accidents every year” than to violence, Jacobson added. He stressed that the issue of traffic deaths is urgent to him and the department. ​“I have officers seeing people mangled in cars.”

District Manager Jarrell Lowery, who supervises police activity in East Rock and Newhallville, noted that ​“traffic enforcement is a great resource, but it’s a temporary resource. There has to be a long term solution.”

Jacobson estimated that a concentrated burst of traffic enforcement might calm driving in an area for about four months.

“What is the criteria for installing a stop sign” at an intersection like Willow and Nicoll? asked Ward 9 alder candidate Caroline Smith.

“There are certain criteria,” traffic director Aysola said, as outlined by federal law. Aysola’s department would need to review the intersection in question and examine whether a stop sign is appropriate.

“How can we speed up the process to do something now?” asked Herrera.

“I don’t have an answer right now,” Aysola said. ​“Willow Street is not on our radar — Orange Street is.” There could be a downside to stalling traffic too much on Willow, he added — drivers might grow more frustrated and more likely to flout traffic laws.

“There is a pressure and there is a need,” insisted Herrera. ​“We don’t need an extra tragedy.”

Aysola agreed to look into a stop sign at Nicoll and Willow. 

Amanda Czepiel noted that the stop signs at Nicoll and Eagle, right where the group congregated, are often not enough to slow traffic. ​“About 40 percent of people stop at the stop sign.”

Eylul Wintermeyer pressed Aysola on other available options. ​“As a mom, I keep getting stuck on how to physically slow down a car. My mind goes to speed bumps.”

Aysola encouraged neighbors to fill out an online form with requests for traffic calming measures — and to call their designated alder. ​“There’s a lot of these requests,” he said. 

Given the bureaucracy that seems to be involved in addressing dangerous traffic, ​“do we just have to live with it?” asked Will Viederman.

“No, no,” Aysola assured him. While speed bumps, speed tables, raised crosswalks, and traffic lights are expensive and time-consuming to approve, Aysola said, the city can also look into simpler fixes in the short term, like painting and re-striping the road to create narrower lanes.

“Can you give a sense of a timeline?” Viederman asked.

“It’s on our list,” Aysola replied.

“Do you mean a month? Six months?” Viederman continued.

“I can’t say it’s going to be a month,” Aysola said, ​“but definitely not six months.”