Fayette County residents raise safety concerns about intersection after several crashes
As Jessilyn Holp looked at the destruction on her property, she shared the stories of incidents through the years.
"There's a bush there. It's gone now," Holp said.
It's damage caused by drivers running off the road, blowing through a stop sign and overcompensating a curve at Main Street and Brown Hill Road in Markleysburg Borough.
"We've had cars in the front yard, cars in the backyard, the neighbor's yard," Holp said.
She said in the 12 years she's lived off Main Street, she can count about a dozen crashes impacting her and her neighbors.
One of the crashes led to a car flipping on its roof in front of her home. Another time, a car struck an apple tree in the backyard. Then, last Wednesday, a truck knocked down a tree and drove into her shed.
"My feeling in that moment was just thankful to God that no one was hurt," Holp said.
Holp is grateful it happened in the morning; otherwise, her 9-year-old and the 18-month-old she babysits may have been playing next to the shed in a sandbox.
"I just thought they wouldn't have seen the truck coming because they were on the other side of the shed," Holp said.
The problem appears to be the drivers coming from West Virginia on Main Street heading towards Route 40, many of them trucks, and they don't seem to see the sign alerting traffic of the stop sign ahead that PennDOT installed around 2017.
"I asked for a guardrail, I asked for rumble strips. They said a guardrail wasn't warranted. They said rumble strips, something about it would interrupt the neighborhood," Holp said.
KDKA reached out to the mayor and the council president to see what steps they've taken to improve the safety, but they said they did not want to comment.
A spokesperson for PennDOT District 12 told KDKA, "We are aware of the concerns voiced by community members and our traffic staff [is] currently investigating the intersection to determine any feasible safety improvements that could be implemented."
"We can't not do anything again," Holp said.
Holp just wants something done before someone is hurt or killed.
"If the neighborhood is telling you that this is a problem, then maybe you should listen to us, because we live here and we see it every day," Holp said.
Holp said police cited the driver from last week's incidents, but no word on the details. It's also unclear whether he'll face any charges. KDKA reached out to Pennsylvania State Police but did not hear back as of Tuesday evening.
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