Provo neighbors frustrated after pattern of crashes
Sep 16, 2024, 9:43 PM | Updated: 10:29 pm
PROVO — A dramatic scene this weekend on a Provo street after a truck crashes through a yard.
The incident happened Sunday morning on a street that neighbors say is dangerous.
2200 North near 500 East is a three-lane road and the speed limit is 35 miles per hour. But neighbors say an increase in traffic and lack of safety measures created hazardous conditions.
On Sunday morning, the Larsen family heard a boom outside. At first, Jeff Larsen thought it was gunfire.
An eastbound truck, with a driver who allegedly fell asleep at the wheel, crossed into his yard, hit the fire hydrant then stopped dangerously close to his house.
“If it had continued right into our house it could have hit our front window where our daughter was reading her book on her bed,” Larsen said.
The Larsens are relived nobody was hurt but neighbors are frustrated.
They say the city of Provo has ignored their pleas to get traffic slowing measures in place. They say cars speed up and down this street and many of them have had mailboxes knocked over, some numerous times.
To make matter worse, the City has a “master plan” in place to widen 2200 North to five lanes. Tonya Nicosia lives across the street from the Larsens. She says the mailboxes are not where the danger is going to stop.
“It’s not just mailboxes,” Nicosia said. “People are going to die.”
Gordon Haight is the public works director for the City of Provo. He says this issue isn’t just for 2200 North.
“This is being played out all over the county,” Haight said. It’s a classic case of growing pains.
He confirms what neighbors say; a master plan is in place to widen this street to create five lanes of traffic. That’s probably a decade out but there are no plans under consideration to slow traffic on 2200 North, or to stop plans to widen the road.
“I think it’s important for cities to plan these things out and think these things through,” Haight said.
Meanwhile, those living on 2200 North say more lanes of traffic is the opposite of what they want to see down the road.
“We purposely don’t have our kids play out front because of how busy the road is,” Larsen said.
Haight says the city leaders do want to hear the concerns of those living along this street, but he says this is all part of much bigger plans for Utah County to account for growth.
