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Chief Wants To Lower Speed Limit On Highway 52

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Jun 23, 2008 7:32 pm US/Mountain

Chief Wants To Lower Speed Limit On Highway 52

Reporting
Mike Hooker
FORT LUPTON, Colo. (CBS4) ― Fort Lupton's police chief wants a lower speed limit along a highway where two children died in a crash.

Cindy Tran, 5, and her sister, Kelly, 4, died Saturday in a crash on Highway 52. Investigators say their parents' car was hit by another vehicle that crossed the center line.

Saturday's fatal crash was just the most recent of the crashes on Highway 52 as it heads east of town. It happened at the same spot where there were serious injuries in a crash two months ago. Police say about a mile east, a left turn lane was added after a woman was killed in another crash a year ago on the narrow highway.

"Being that it's a two-lane highway, definitely the speed should be lower," said Fort Lupton resident Amy Jimenez.

Jimenez said she's known it's a dangerous stretch of road.

"I have had a few friends that have been in accidents on this highway," she said. "I have one friend that is paralyzed. It's obviously an issue that needs to be addressed."

"We've been trying to figure out just what's going on at this location," said Chief Ronald Grannis with Fort Lupton police. "First of all, I think the speed limit is too high at that location. We need to lower the speed limit."

Grannis said last week he and the city manager wrote to the Colorado Department of Transportation requesting a lower speed limit. He said instead of 55 milers per hour, it should be 35. Also, to avoid nighttime crashes, drivers simply need to pay better attention.

"I think that drivers are looking at the city lights because the whole city is laid out in front of them and they're not being real attentive to the traffic in front of them," Grannis said. "That's the only thing that I can think of that may be contributing to these crashes, other than the fact that I think the speed limit is way too high there."

A spokesperson for CDOT said now that the city has made a formal request to change the speed limit, traffic engineers are starting work on a speed study. That will take a month or two to determine if lowering the speed limit is the best way to make the highway safer.

One woman who stopped by the stretch of road while CBS4's Mike Hooker was there for a report told him she's frustrated they won't just do it.

"She told me it shouldn't take weeks of study to figure out that lowering the speed limit here will save lives," Hooker said.

The parents of the two children who died in that crash are in fair condition in the hospital in Greeley.

The woman who police say caused the crash is in serious condition. Police still don't know why her car swerved across the highway.

(© MMIX CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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