Fort Myers businesses highlight Fowler Street road safety concerns | Lee County

A Washington Post article highlighted some of the deadliest roads across America. While no Southwest Florida roads made the top ten, Fowler Street in Fort Myers came close.

From 2021 to 2023, Fowler Street saw eight pedestrian deaths, just two shy of making the top ten list. Residents and businesses in the area are not surprised by these numbers.

A semi-truck stopping traffic, people crossing where they shouldn’t and frequent speeders are common sights on Fowler Street.

“It’s bad enough doing 40 miles an hour on the street with the people that pull out halfway into traffic, let alone people doing 80-90 or 100 miles an hour down through here,” said Darren Litteral, service manager at Terry Winter Auto on Fowler Street.

Litteral shared that he’s even seen some of his customers involved in accidents as they pull out of his business.

Just down the road, another local business faces similar challenges.

“It’s always cars going up and down the street, and the sidewalk is dark,” said Gabriel, who works at Xpress Meat Market. “There’s no lighting, so it’s hard to like go around the place at night. When we have trash cans up front, it’s hard to get in here with the car because you can’t see the car in the lane.”

Despite not making the top ten, Fowler Street’s proximity to the list was not surprising to people who frequently drive or work along the busy road. 

“When people die, unfortunately, they put those little cross, little stuff, little memorial. We see these all the time here,” said Gabriel.

The lack of lighting and sidewalk conditions are discouraging for customers, and locals have suggestions for improvement.

“I think you used to have a couple of lights that worked before, but after all the hurricane stuff like that, it’s all dark. The sidewalk is all cracked in lot of areas,” said Gabriel.

“They need more police presence up and down here. I mean, that’s once people start getting pulled over and everything, they’ll stop,” added Litteral. “I don’t really see any people hardly getting pulled over here at all.”

Despite data gathered in previous years, the numbers are trending downward for 2024 and 2025. 

WINK News placed a records request for the abovementioned data to the Fort Myers Police Department. Our reporters will provide an update whenever the records request is fulfilled.