© St. Petersburg Times, published July 15, 1999

Working fast to slow things down

Bruce Murakami and Joan Landrum stand near the area where they each lost family members to accidents on W Hillsborough Avenue. [Times photo: Thomas M. Goethe]

By SARAH LUECK

TAMPA -- As Cindy Murakami pulled out of a shopping center parking lot on W Hillsborough Avenue last November, her van collided with a car and burst into flames, killing her and her 11-year-old daughter Chelsea.

Her husband thinks a stoplight would have saved them.

Four years earlier, as 15-year-old Mark Landrum tried to walk across the same stretch of road, a car struck him, hurling him 120 feet. He landed on his head and died four hours later.

His mother thinks a crosswalk would have saved him.

Now Bruce Murakami and Joan Landrum have joined to make this busy stretch of Hillsborough Avenue safer. They want stop lights, a crosswalk and a lower speed limit.

"Whoever makes the loudest noise gets the funding," Landrum said. "We're trying to make the loudest noise."

So far, though, their noise hasn't budged state road officials, who are considering more limited solutions.

The stretch of Hillsborough near the entrance to Colony Crossings Shopping Centers and nearby Elliot Drive has seen 29 accidents from January 1996 to January 1998, a state report found. The numbers aren't unusually high by the state's standards, but Murakami and Landrum don't want others to lose loved ones to what they say are deadly intersections where cars move too fast.

"It's a horrible process to go through," said Murakami, a building contractor who spends most of his time and resources on this cause. "It's something that will never go away. There's no reason for it if it can be prevented."

Murakami and Landrum have collected more than 3,500 signatures of people endorsing their suggested changes and sought support from state Rep. Chris Hart, R-Tampa, and County Commissioner Ben Wacksman, who represents the Town 'N Country area where the accidents have happened.

"We're going to the top," Murakami said. "If we have to go to Tallahassee to go sit on somebody's doorstep, we will."

But doing what they want could actually make things worse, said Marian Scorza of the Florida Department of Transportation. Instead, TEI Engineers & Planners, the DOT's consulting engineer, recommended new medians that would prevent the kind of left turn Murakami's wife was attempting to make out of the shopping center, and also from Elliot Drive. Improved lighting also was recommended.

"Putting in signal lights is not always the answer to problems," Scorza said. That could increase the likelihood of rear-end accidents. Also, new dangers might result if people try to run a red light or if motorists try to avoid the lights by using residential streets, the report stated.

The DOT follows criteria set by the Florida Highway Patrol in deciding whether a traffic signal should be installed, Scorza said. For example, an intersection where there is an unusually high number of cars, pedestrians or accidents might rate.

But the Hillsborough intersections met just one of the criteria, and only at one intersection, Scorza said. Hillsborough Avenue at Colony Crossings had heavy traffic during four peak hours of the day, but that doesn't typically warrant a signal, Scorza said.

A crosswalk and a reduced speed limit also are unnecessary, the study found. The report noted that pedestrians who were observed crossing Hillsborough did so without delay. And lowering the speed limit probably would not have much effect. Studies found that most people would drive at 55 mph regardless of the speed limit and it's safer when traffic is flowing at the same speed, the study concluded.

Murakami is skeptical of the report's results. It's obvious to him, he said, that changes need to be made.

"If you travel this road every day, you're going to see the dangers out there," he said.

Even those who haven't been touched by an accident on the street want a change, said Tami Belasco, manager of Newport Apartments, 10802 W Hillsborough Ave. She has collected signatures for the petition and says something needs to be done. "Hillsborough has just about become a Dale Mabry. Dale Mabry has traffic lights so people can get across, Hillsborough doesn't," Belasco said. "People fly down Hillsborough. They say they can't justify a traffic light. They're not even making sense."

Department of Transportation officials expect to make a final decision in the next month.