deadly November crash that killed four people and injured 13 others.<\/a><\/p>\nThe updates were presented to Tampa City Council following a February community meeting where residents and victims\u2019 families questioned whether proposed changes would go far enough to prevent another tragedy.<\/p>\n
Police said they plan to increase their presence in the historic entertainment district, pointing to the recent Night Parade as an example of stepped-up enforcement that they described as successful.<\/p>\n
The city\u2019s Mobility Department also detailed several physical changes designed to slow traffic and limit vehicles\u2019 access to pedestrian-heavy areas along East 7th Avenue.<\/p>\n
Adam Purcell with the Mobility Department said the goal is to reduce speeds and create more separation between vehicles and crowds.<\/p>\n
Continuing to rebrick portions of 7th Avenue, a design officials say naturally slows drivers.Installing protective bollards at high-volume intersections, similar to those in front of Columbia Restaurant.Adding on-street parking between Nuccio Parkway and Nebraska Avenue to narrow the roadway and encourage slower speeds. The plan would introduce bus bays and create 36 on-street parking spaces near where the crash occurred.Reducing the speed limit on 7th Avenue from 30 mph to 25 mph. Officials said that change is expected within the next two weeks. <\/p>\n
City leaders said the efforts are part of a broader transportation safety program staffed by three full-time employees who focus on traffic and pedestrian safety improvements across Tampa.<\/p>\n
The presentation comes after a Feb. 3 public meeting at Centro Asturiano de Tampa, just steps from where authorities say a suspected drunk driver plowed into a crowd along 7th Avenue on Nov. 8.<\/p>\n
At that meeting, many residents and family members of victims said lowering the speed limit, adding parking and installing bollards did not go far enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust make it a pedestrian street, why can’t that be revisited?\u201d Sherman Jones\u2019 sister, Candra Granville Mack, said at the meeting. \u201cWe shouldn’t be standing here, we couldn’t even do an open casket, that’s how bad it was.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some attendees also expressed frustration that Florida Highway Patrol and Tampa police were pursuing the suspect\u2019s car along 7th Avenue until seconds before the crash. They called for accountability over how the chase was handled.<\/p>\n
Major Les Richardson, the district commander for Ybor, said at the time that the case remains under investigation and declined to comment further.<\/p>\n
The man charged in the crash, Silas Sampson, faces DUI manslaughter charges.<\/p>\n
City officials have previously said the Nov. 8 crash was the only fatal crash in the Ybor City area in the last decade, describing it as an exception rather than a pattern. But the families of those killed said the deaths of their loved ones demand stronger action to ensure it never happens again.<\/p>\n
Council members did not take formal action during Thursday\u2019s update, but city staff said work on several of the proposed changes is already underway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tampa police and city mobility leaders outlined new safety initiatives for Ybor City, months after a November crash…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161951,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-161950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}