A string of serious -- and sometimes deadly -- car crashes on U.S. Highway 380 in northeastern Denton County prompted a local woman to begin a petition drive, demanding safer roads.
As Jessica Dunn watched her laptop, she watched the numbers grow rapidly.
"It just shows how many people are concerned about this issue," Dunn said.
The issue also has to do with the number of serious motor vehicle accidents along Highway 380. Dunn, who lives in unincorporated Savannah with her husband and two sons, started a petition Sunday afternoon. She said she was driven by comments about accidents on Highway 380.
"This isn't my thoughts," she said. "This is what everyone has said."
Dunn's petition, addressed to the Texas Department of Public Safety, calls for several safety-related changes along U.S. 380. Part of the concern lies in just how much the area has grown in recent years, and how much additional traffic the growth has created.
"This road is dangerous already," she read from one of the comments on the petition, posted on the website change.org. “How much worse is it going to get with all the new homes and businesses being built?"
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Earlier this month, two people died in a head-on crash on Highway 380. Twenty-four-year-old Devron Kennedy of Little Elm was on his way to work, according to his father, when his car was struck by a vehicle driven by 25-year-old Josiane Alexander of Denton.
A crash this past weekend is what prompted Dunn to take action. It happened not far from her home Saturday night, as her family was hanging Christmas decorations.
"There was a loud explosion," Dunn said. "It was almost like a plane had gone down."
The Northeast Police Department, which patrols a stretch of several miles along Highway 380, posted pictures of the wreck on social media. Several people were injured when two cars collided on the highway in what police said appeared to be an incident of "street racing."
Dunn said that is not uncommon on Highway 380.
"You'll see motorcycles, cars weaving in and out of traffic," she said. "And it's putting people's lives in danger."
The petition calls for, among other things, more police patrols, more traffic lights and frontage roads near busy residential streets. Dunn planned to assemble a group of like-minded community residents, to attend local government meeting and demand changes. TxDOT planned to expand U.S. 380 in Collin and Denton counties, a project which would include safety enhancements. But construction on those changes is a few years away.
"I don't think you can wait," Dunn said. "Anything is better than what's going on right now."
