HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — ABC Action News is committed to keeping drivers safe as part of our mission to Drive Tampa Bay Forward, and that's why a viewer reached out to us about a stretch of road along Lumsden Road.
Drivers like Karen Butcher say if you want to go down Lumsden Road from Providence to Kings Way you're forced to make constant U-turns and you have to cross several lanes of heavy traffic to do so.
We crunched the accident numbers and found along that stretch of road in Hillsborough County the most accidents happen between 4 and 7 p.m.
"I know all the back roads," that's why Butcher laughs as she knows all the ways around the heavy, constant flow of traffic.
"It's just terrible," she said. "You have to make a U-turn everywhere!"
Out of the 22 crashes from Brandon Parkway to Kings Avenue so far this year, 13 of them were during the evening rush hour when drivers say there is no break in the traffic.
The county tells us they're aware of the residents' concerns and are looking into them.
The sheriff's office tells us that's why they ask drivers to turn into the first lane of traffic, instead of crossing over all three lanes of traffic in one turn.
"It's just not always possible to come out of those nearby businesses and cross through three lanes of traffic to turn where you need to turn, so we always recommend safely merging into the nearest lanes and switch lanes as you travel down until you can safely make a U-turn," said a spokesperson by email.
