State of Emergency on Greenwell Springs Rd.

Health and Fitness? Greenwell Springs Rd. Is Greatest Threat to Health of Our Children

by Woody Jenkins

CENTRAL — The death of Daniel Couvillion has left this community stunned.  And it has left us wondering who will be next?

Over the past 18 months, we have had one tragic death after another on Central’s narrow, antiquated roads.  Amazingly, every death has been of a young person with his entire life ahead of him.

Major roads in Central — Greenwell Springs, Sullivan, Wax, Hooper, and Denham — have one thing in common: They are all death traps.  They are all 1) narrow, 2) with no shoulders, 3) steep dropoffs, and 4) deep ditches.  Some of them like Greenwell Springs Road also have trees near the roadway.

It can be said that every fatal accident has been the result of driver error to one degree or the other.

But it can also be said that roads have to be built in such a way as to accommodate some minor driver error.

These roads fail that test.

These roads are completely unforgiving.  The slightest driver error seems to result in a fatality.

So many of the commuters passing through Central speed through without the slightest knowledge of how dangerous our roads are.  Yet, they are seldom the victims.

Ironically, Central residents are almost always the ones killed.

Now is the time for action on this extreme road crisis.

The Louisiana Legislature is in session, and the governor is in the state and at the mansion.

Greenwell Springs Road is a STATE highway.  The governor and our legislators should be taking strong and immediate action to correct the problems with this road.

What can be done?

It’s really pretty simple: Put drain pipes where there are now ditches, cover them, and build shoulders on each side of the road.

More than anything else, we need shoulders on our roads — like any road should be expected to have.  Shoulders provide an escape route and an accommodation for minor driving errors.

We should be sending delegations to the State Capital and demanding IMMEDIATE ACTION to improve not just Greenwell Springs Road, but also Sullivan Road, Wax Road, Hooper Road, and Denham, all of which are either state or parish roads.

Warning barricades should be installed on Greenwell Springs Road, beginning at Sullivan with flashing lights.

Large illuminated signs showing driving speeds should be placed at two or three spots along the road.

State Police and sheriff’s deputies should patrol Greenwell Springs Road constantly throughout the day and night.

An improvement plan should be designed and funded immediately.

The barricades and other warnings should be maintained while construction occurs.

This is a true life-or-death emergency, and the time for lethagy and inaction are long past.

If anything here is of any value, it is the lives of our children.

Our elected officials at the state, parish, and municipal levels should be up in arms and on high alert.  No one should rest until this is a done-deal.

Our citizens should be calling, writing, demanding, protesting.

At the Central City News, we have editorialized on this crisis many times.

But our words have counted for little.  Little has been done, and the death toll continues to rise.

In Baton Rouge, 100 churches will have protests and 1,000 people will show up if they think the empty CATS buses aren’t being funded well enough.

But in Central we sit quietly and do NOTHING while our children are killed on these dangerous roads.

Isn’t it time to get up and DO SOMETHING before its your spouse, your child, your grandchild, or YOU who is killed?

Call the Governor, call the Mayor-President, call the legislators, call the Mayor.  Make them take action.

Or just sit there and read the next obituary of some fine young man or woman who was killed on a road in Central.