The event was held steps from the site of a November car crash that killed four people and injured 13 more.
TAMPA, Fla. — Monday night, neighbors told Tampa leaders a proposal to help increase pedestrian safety in Ybor City is not enough to allay their concerns.
It was the first time the public could weigh in on possible traffic changes after a deadly car crash nearly three months ago when four people were killed and 13 others were injured.
Lowering the speed limit, adding street parking on 7th Avenue and installing sidewalk bollards were all proposed at the meeting at Centro Asturiano de Tampa in Ybor just steps from where a suspected drunk driver plowed full speed into a crowd of people one Friday night in early November.
But most who showed up don’t think the plan goes far enough, including the family of Sherman Jones, who was killed in the crash.
“Just make it a pedestrian street, why can’t that be revisited?” Jones’s sister Candra Granville Mack said. “We shouldn’t be standing here, we couldn’t even do an open casket, that’s how bad it was.”
They’re frustrated Florida Highway Patrol and Tampa Police were chasing the suspect’s car down 7th Avenue until seconds before the crash and want accountability for that.
“They could have went to his house in Dade City and arrested him and not caused a tragedy for all of us for the rest of our lives,” she added.
The police commander for Ybor couldn’t offer much in response, saying the case is still under investigation.
“While I definitely understand your concern in the oversight and various individuals have that belief,” Major Les Richardson, the district commander for Ybor said. “I think at this point it is negligent on my behalf to talk about an open investigation.”
But others said the blame should lie with the man now charged with DUI manslaughter, Silas Sampson.
“You can’t stop bad people from doing bad things,” one attendee said.
The city also mentioned how often pedestrians are injured and killed in Ybor city as a reason why they aren’t proposing shutting down 7th during busy times at night on weekends.
They say despite some people’s fears over pedestrian safety here, the Nov. 8 crash was the only fatal crash in the area in the last 10 years, so it was the exception and not a common occurrence.
But Sherman Jones’s family bristled at that saying his death and the three others killed are still a shameful statistic and that the city should do everything to make sure it doesn’t happen again.