Neighbors in a high desert community call it a dangerous and deadly road, and they say a simple stop sign could save lives.
The road in question is Cantina Drive in the city of Victorville. It’s only a mile long, but neighbors say the speeding is out of control, and are pushing for a stop sign to help solve the problem.
Just about a year ago, home surveillance cameras recorded video of an SUV clipping a car driven by Keith Gustafson’s mother-in-law and then launching into Gustavson’s home.
He says the driver of that SUV was speeding and couldn't stop in time as Gustafson’s mother-in-law tried to make a legal left turn.
"It did about $4,000 in damage to her car and about $50,000 to the house," he said.
Cantina Drive parallels Highway 395, and it’s often used as a bypass.
Neighbors say the problem is, some drivers aren’t obeying the 45 and 50 mile per hour speed limits.
News
Top news of the day
"It's probably 70 or 80," Gustafson said.
Others agreed.
"It's pretty frustrating to see people speed," said Patrick Gatten.
Show video at 16:04:20
Six months ago, the speeding issue took a deadly turn when an SUV tried to make a left turn on Cantina Drive and it was broadsided by another car.
"The speed is definitely a factor," said Lani Baker.
Baker’s father George Wiley was sitting in the front passenger seat of the SUV. He suffered a broken back and later died from health complications.
Since that fatal crash, the city has made a few safety changes, including reconfiguring the road by putting in a middle turn lane.
But neighbors say it still hasn’t stopped the speeding.
"It's a simple thing,” Baker said. "A stop sign can't cost that much money. What's my dad’s life worth?"
NBC4 spoke to city engineers about placing a stop sign on Cantina Drive, but they said that according to state and federal guidelines, there isn’t enough cross traffic to warrant it, so they can’t put one here.
"It's just a ticking time bomb. Sooner or later it's going to happen again," Gustafson, whose house was plowed into, said.
City engineers say they are now planning to add a speed zone sign, so drivers are reminded about how fast they are going, and they talked with the sheriff’s department about adding more patrols on this road to help catch the speeders.
