6/2/23: NEIGHBORS REPORT ON PEDESTRIAN HIT LAST SATURDAY BY MINIVAN ON CLOGGED CUT-THRU TRAFFIC INTERSECTION. WE QUESTION POLICE ROLE IN CONTROLLING TRAFFIC.

As some of you have heard, a pedestrian was struck last Saturday afternoon by a vehicle at the congested intersection of Hillcrest Drive and Wax Myrtle Trail and attended to by emergency personnel. While we have not read the police report of the incident—which we trust Chief David Kole will share at the Town Council meeting Tuesday evening (5:30 p.m., Pitts Center)—we have learned from neighbors, who prefer to remain anonymous, what occurred.

By mid-afternoon last Saturday, one homeowner told us, the cut-thru traffic near the Wax Myrtle-Hillcrest intersection had become “so congested that people were driving down both sides of Hillcrest toward the intersection with Duck Road. [Once there,] only a few cars at a time were getting to turn left on to Duck Road, and on some light cycles, none, pushing everyone along Hillcrest toward madness.”

The intersections of Hillcrest Drive with Wax Myrtle Trail and Sea Oats Trail “became scenes of tension and conflict,” the homeowner said, “because the people on Hillcrest wouldn’t let” motorists turning off of the other two streets into the flow of traffic.

A conflict apparently arose between a pedestrian who was trying to cross the Hillcrest-Wax Myrtle intersection and “started to get cut off by a minivan trying to force its way [from Wax Myrtle] on to Hillcrest,” another resident reported. The pedestrian “stood his ground,” and the minivan struck him, and he fell to the ground.

After police, EMS, and fire department personnel responded to the incident, another dangerous situation apparently occurred, according to the homeowner. A driver in a Land Rover, who was trying to drive up the blocked Hillcrest Drive in the opposite direction from arriving vacationers, drove on to rights of way and people’s yards in order to get around the gridlock in the street.

According to an eyewitness, the Land Rover driver got “exasperated, throwing up his hands, hitting the steering wheel,” and exiting Hillcrest Drive by driving onto someone’s yard, over rocks and behind emergency vehicles, then crossing Wax Myrtle Trail, and continuing “up Hillcrest along the right of way until he was out of sight.”    

The eyewitness described the Land Rover driver as “volatile” and was shocked that the police did nothing to stop his progress.

We do not know the identity of the pedestrian who was hit or the extent of his injury. The eyewitness to the Land Rover driver’s off-road driving thought the driver was probably a local resident.

In explaining at the Town Council’s May 2 meeting why she did not support the use of “Local Traffic Only” barricades along the cut-thru route this summer, Mayor Elizabeth Morey said she thought the “potential for conflict” between and among drivers and residents over their use “outweighs their efficacy,” an opinion she based on her personal observations last summer and one that she has consistently expressed since last June.

The Town Council unanimously rejected the use of the barricades. (See The Beacon, 5/3/23)

It would appear that Mayor Morey and her Town Council colleagues should have given more thought to the “potential for conflict” along the cut-thru route in the absence of barricades, which discourage some drivers from entering roads and certainly slow down the flow of traffic. People are at least warned of the risk they take by using the cut-thru route.

To our knowledge, no two-way Southern Shores streets became one-way at Duck Road last summer, in the direction of the northbound cut-thru traffic, because of vehicle congestion and driver frustration. And no pedestrians were hit by minivans. (We are aware that arriving motorists have made Hillcrest Drive one-way before its intersection with Sea Oats Trail.)

We have long maintained that with barricades closing key access roads and police on the ground controlling traffic at key intersections, the traffic flow on both the cut-thru route and Duck Road can move more smoothly and safely than it currently does on summertime weekends. We frankly do not understand why the police are not involved in moving the traffic through town.

According to its website, the Southern Shores Police Dept. has a complement of 11 police officers, including the Chief, Deputy Chief, and school resource officer, and it is seeking to hire a twelfth. The Town has financial reserves to pay Southern Shores police officers overtime for Saturday afternoon duty, if necessary, and to hire off-duty police from other towns to help during the peak weekend times. (According to its website, the Town of Duck Police Dept. has 12 officers!) Why aren’t we using police officers to do what they’re trained to do?

We hope today’s traffic will be much improved from last Saturday’s. We also hope that the Mayor, the Town Council, and the Police Chief are looking ahead to what they can do differently during the peak season to ensure public safety through better management of the traffic through town.

TOWN COUNCIL MEETS TUESDAY AT 5:30 P.M. IN THE PITTS CENTER

SPEED BUMPS?

The Town Council’s Tuesday (June 6) meeting is top-heavy with four public hearings, three of them on Zoning Text Amendments and the fourth on the Town Manager’s recommended budget for fiscal year 2023-24. We will report briefly on these hearings and the budget either tomorrow or Monday.

Today we mention only that the last item listed on the meeting agenda under “New Business” is a discussion/consideration of speed bumps on residential streets. Homeowners on South Dogwood Trail, Wax Myrtle Trail, and Sea Oats Trail, in particular, have publicly complained about speeding on their streets. After hearing some of these complaints again at its May 2 meeting, the Town Council tasked the Town staff with researching the use of speed bumps.

It is unfortunate that this item was assigned such low priority, with all four hearings, several Town contract matters, and even the reappointment of a Planning Board member for another three-year term being taken up before this discussion. We believe this discussion should come under the “Old Business” agenda and occur before all of the other time-consuming “New Business” agenda items.

We are also dismayed that Police Chief Kole will be presenting the “staff” findings on the use of speed bumps. Chief Kole has not previously supported speed bumps because they are perceived as impediments to first responders. We would have preferred to have heard from the Town Manager on the subject.

Have a good weekend, everyone.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 6/3/23