A Question To The City From Randy Baron

This is the text of a letter addressed to all appropriate department heads.

All,

Yesterday another car accident occurred at the intersection of Florida Ave and Powhatan Ave. You may recall that last Valentine's Day a young women, Flora Revesz, was tragically killed in an accident at this same intersection. At that time, Old Seminole Heights Neighborhood Association warned the city of the dangers of the sight obstructions caused by the fences of the commercial properties along Florida Avenue, many of which are used car lots with their vehicles pulled up to the fence. Additionally, the utility poles, placed in the sidewalk, cause further obstructions. While there were investigations by Zoning, Code Enforcement and Transportation (not surprisingly, FDOT claimed that it was a city problem), the only action taken was to ask car lot owners to back their vehicles away from the fence. I can tell you from experience that many of the lots now have their vehicles back up to the fence.

The accident yesterday was serious, but, thankfully, there were no fatalities. However, the accident report does indicate that there was a sight obstruction. Notably, the vehicle in this case entered Florida Ave from the west side, the opposite corner from the Revesz accident. This supports our contention that the sight obstructions exist along the entire length of Florida Ave (not to mention Nebraska Avenue). Indeed, I invite all of you to turn onto Florida Ave from any one of the residential streets if you want to experience the rush of literally taking your life in your hands, your car inching into oncoming traffic, as you attempt to peer around the corner.

My question is how many accidents will it take before the something is done to enforce to the line of sight requirements and make these intersections safe?

I appreciate your attention to this matter.


Randy Baron
President
Old Seminole Heights Neighborhood Association
(813) 281-8463 (w)
(813) 215-6717 (c)
www.oldseminoleheights.com