HOLLAND, Ohio — Neighbors on a dead-end street in Springfield Township are speaking out on dangerous conditions after a crash Saturday night.
Ohio State Highway Patrol says a pick-up truck crashed on I-475 after driving straight through a dead-end fence on Nebraska Avenue and over a dirt mound. Neighbors are getting worried about safety on the block, adding this is not the first such crash.
"People just don't get, it's a dead-end road and it's so dark down here," said Ashley Mendez who's lived on Nebraska for three years. "They just keep going straight as if Nebraska goes straight through."
One neighbor described it as a Dukes of Hazzard style crash - and it's not the first one.
"Over the summer it happened to another car when the dirt mound was smaller yet," said Mendez.
She says the only signs saying it's a dead-end are a half-mile back at the street lights at North McCord.
"I do think we need more obvious signage," she said, "because we have people who fly down the street as if they have no idea they're coming to a dead-end and then they hit the brakes in the last 20 yards."
Mendez says in addition to more signage, the street needs a reflective fence or barrier. Right now, there's no guardrail to help stop people from driving straight onto the highway.
"Down at the turnaround, there needs to be at least something reflective at the end of the street for one," she said, "so people know for one, literally, hey the buck stops here."
There are no lights on the block. Mendez says lights on the highway were removed last year when the Ohio Department of Transportation began work on the I-475 widening project.
Neighbors, some with children, hope something as simple as a streetlight can be installed to keep them safe and show speeding drivers, this is a dead-end.
"There's a light pole with no light on it," Mendez said. "I don't quite understand it. I feel like even a single street light would make a huge difference."
Mendez says she's seen an increase in these incidents since ODOT started its work on I-475.