SEMINOLE, Fla. — Erin Schofield and her neighbors are frustrated with drivers speeding through their neighborhood at all times of the day, especially when Orange Grove Elementary students are going or leaving school.
“Enough is enough,” said Schofield.
She has a front-row seat to the speeding, which is happening on 66th Ave. N. from 104th St. North to Gem Ln. Schofield lives right at the corner of 66th and 104th.
“I see it every day at all hours of the day. My surveillance cameras catch them every day," she said.
She has over 150 videos of drivers blowing past stop signs, motorcyclists going nearly 20 miles over the speed limit and even crashes. The last crash she witnessed happened in February.
According to her, the driver in a silver Sedan was trying to turn left onto 66th from 104thd, when an SUV clipped the front of the car knocking the grill off. This happened as students were leaving Orange Grove Elementary.
“It’s gut-wrenching,” she said.
Schofield and her neighbors have been pushing for road safety improvements for the last three years.
“I would be devastated if someone got hit or severely injured out here," Schofield said.
The city and the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office did two road studies. They added radar signs on both sides of 66th, plan to paint crosswalks, put up new signs letting drivers know to slow down and will be increasing patrols in the area.
Orange Grove school officials have taken steps to keep kids safe. They’ve added a sidewalk around the front of the school so kids going North of 66th no longer have to cross at 66th and 104th. This is great news for parents, like Ann Marie Weather.
“I don’t see those kids there anymore, so I’m no longer nervous for them,” Weather said. “I know that the school did what they could do as far as they could.”
For some, like Schofield, it’s not enough.
“We need a permanent solution,” she said. “These are just band-aids on a much bigger problem”
For Scofield, a permanent solution would be speed humps or speed tables. City leaders say those will not fix the problem and in some cases, they fear it would be worse.
Schofield has no plans to stop “pushing for speed humps.”
The city plans to paint the crosswalks and put the new signs up on Wednesday.
