Fort Pierce launches plan to improve road safety in the city, citing high crash rate

FORT PIERCE, Fla. (CBS12) - Over the past six years, Fort Pierce officials say there is an average of six crashes-a-day on the roads within the city, anything from car wrecks to pedestrian or bike incidents.
“I’ve seen that about that, or more, in a day, out here painting buildings, at least six or more I’ve seen in a day,” Michael Banschbach, who works in Fort Pierce, told CBS12 News Tuesday.
Banschbach says the roads in Fort Pierce are below par.
“A lot potholes, a lot of bad roadways. I’ve actually had to get a new alignment, I drive an antique jeep, and the roads are just horrible," he remarked. "I’ve seen so many little fender benders and accidents, and there’s so many children walking around. It just, yeah, makes you think they could be doing something better.”
The city just launched their Comprehensive Safety Action Plan (CSAP) this week, meant to address road hazards - like the potholes Banschbach mentioned - in addition to road markings, lighting and more.
“We need to fix it," said Selena Griffett, the Project Engineer for the city, tasked with developing elements of CSAP. "We need to find a way to address these issues, minimize them as much as we possibly can.”
Griffett says Fort Pierce has raised about $300,000 between grants and city contributions to figure out exactly where the problems are around town.
“We’re limited to the information we can get from either FDOT or the police department. There are people living in our area that see it every day, and we’ve got to hear it from them," she continued, "to start counteracting all of that negativity and all of the accidents, people getting hurt, we don’t want that.”
Griffett says lighting, crosswalks and proper signage can be improved in many areas - helping drivers, bike riders and pedestrians.
That’s something the people that live and work there say they want to see.
“They can probably put more lights out, more stop signs, anything is going to be better than what’s going on," Banschbach opined. "If they find time to do this, that would be awesome, because it would help the people a lot more.”
The people are going to have their say in what this plan brings on and around the roads; the city is going to be holding several public meetings to workshop ideas.
The first public meeting is scheduled on October 16th at 5:30 p.m. at the River Walk Center.
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