By Maria Ferrera
I live on Main Street, north of . This is a dangerous stretch of road because of reckless drivers.
Drivers do not observe the 30 mile per hour speed limit. Drivers do not stop at the traffic light on the corner of Highland and Main. These drivers are a threat to everyone else on the road.
A few years ago, a drunk driver smashed into 4 cars parked across the street from my house. Three of those cars belonged to my family. My father's pickup truck was totaled. Luckily the driver was unhurt, although he had to be cut out of his vehicle.
A few weeks after that, a car came flying off Main Street, across my neighbor's lawn, smashing into my brothers SUV which was parked in my driveway. Again, the driver was drunk and luckily he and his passenger were unhurt.
About a year later, a friend's car parked across the street was totaled by a distracted driver.
About a month ago, a driver knocked down the telephone pole across the street from my house, disrupting phone and cable service to the neighborhood.
Those were all right in front of one house. Farther down the road in the past few months, 3 pedestrians have been hit while crossing Main Street.
I would like to let these reckless drivers know that they are lucky -- lucky to have survived and lucky to not have killed anyone. Lucky that their families won't have to lay wreaths and flowers and candles on the spot where they may have lost their lives -- lucky that the vehicles they collided with were unoccupied and lucky that no one was walking their dog on the sidewalk at that moment.
I drive by the spots around town with sadly faded and weather beaten silk flower wreaths marking the locations of fatal accidents described in the paper. I know this pain firsthand as there is a spot where I laid a silk flower wreath now and then where my husband lost his life -- and where a tree was planted in his memory.
If the accidents I have described had led to deaths -- the town would have reacted and taken steps to cut down on reckless drivers.
Let's not wait until Main Street becomes littered with memorials. Let's be proactive and figure out a way to enforce safety on Main Street. Let's do it now -- before someone is killed.
