OCOEE, Fla. – City commissioners in Ocoee are set to sign off on safety improvements at two intersections.
With their approval Tuesday night, city staff will move forward with installing stop signs and stop bars at the intersections of Montgomery Avenue and Orlando Avenue and Adair Street and Wurst Road.
Our News 6 team visited the intersection of Adair Street and Wurst Road back in 2022 after a young boy was hit by a car while riding his bike.
Ashley Wynn said her son Rontavius “Tay” Newman,13, her younger son and a friend were riding their bikes after a neighbor’s surveillance video showed the teenager getting hit by a car while trying to cross the street.
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“I was just shocked, but I was thankful at the same time, because if that car hit him dead on, my son would have flipped in their air and who knows if he would be here or not. I would probably have one (child) today,” she said with tears in her eyes.
At the time, Wynn told News 6 she wanted changes to be made so no other kids would get hit.
The city installed a pedestrian crossing that has been in use for some time now.
A traffic study included in Tuesday night’s city commission agenda shows installing additional stop signs to make the intersection an all-way stop will make the intersection even safer.
The study shows there were eight crashes in a three-year period from January 1, 2022, to July 31, 2024. That includes the crash where Wynn’s son was hit.
Out of those 8 crashes, the study found that an all-way stop would have helped in five cases.
City staff is recommending the mayor and city commission to sign off an all-way stop control at the intersection of Adair and Wurst and Montgomery and Orlando.
According to a staff report obtained by News 6, funding for the improvements to include stop signs and stop bars is already in the current budget.
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