Haw River Road gets speedmonitoring sign after deaths

by CHRIS BURRITT

OAK RIDGE – Nine months after a second Halloween night fatality on Haw River Road, a new digital sign is monitoring the speed of motorists on the stretch of road.

Town Manager Bill Bruce told the Town Council during its Aug. 3 meeting that Oak Ridge paid for the installation of the sign in an effort to slow down motorists following two Halloween night fatalities in 2022 and 2019.

“The sign is designed to alert drivers who are heading eastbound on Haw River Road into the town of Stokesdale that they’re approaching an area with residential driveways and potentially greater conflicts, including pedestrians,” Bruce said.

The sign is one of the safety precautions requested by family and friends of 14-year-old Aliyah Thornhill, who was hit and killed on Halloween night last October, and Noah Chambers, 11, who died after being struck by a motorist three years earlier.

Oak Ridge plans to collect data as part of efforts to determine whether the effectiveness of the sign may warrant placing others around town, Bruce said.

Speed data previously gathered by the North Carolina Department of Public Transportation (NCDOT) will serve as a baseline for the town’s evaluation of the effectiveness of the digital sign.

NCDOT’s data “showed that people come in pretty hot from the west and

Coming August 23, the all new

Photo courtesy of Town of Oak Ridge The Town of Oak Ridge has installed a permanent digital radar sign on Haw River Road, located east of Apple Grove Road in Oak Ridge heading toward Stokesdale, to help slow drivers as they approach the more residential areas along the road. The radar sign will indicate a vehicle’s current rate of speed along with the posted speed limit.

they start slowing down a little bit,” Mayor Schneider said. “But we want them to slow down more, like maybe to the speed limit.”

Soon, the town plans to commence a public information campaign on its website and Facebook page promoting pedestrian and motorist safety, Bruce added.