Hats off to the Villages Daily Sun for its reporting on US 19 and other roads.
 

I lived in Palm Harbor, Florida from 1996 to 2005. US 19 in Palm Harbor would have bad accidents in or near Palm Harbor almost every day.

I almost got the "Pray for me I drive US 19" bumper sticker and would almost always try to take back roads to avoid US 19 as much as possible. I would have to cross it a few times when going places.

The Villages Daily Sun article focused on US 19 in Pasco County which is even more dangerous than its southern portion.

Of course, pedestrians are often the casualties of heavy fast traffic combined with very wide roads, few sidewalks and inattentive drivers.


No easy solutions though given on how many people and cars are involved. I could not wait to move to the much safer Villages' streets. Even though I did go back to Palm Harbor up to about 2011 to help a couple who had been very good to me.

The Villages Daily Sun has a front page story on some of the people we have lost in these accidents involving pedestrians on some of Florida 's deadliest roads.

It does happen in the Villages every so often.

This is at least the fourth day that articles related to pedestrian safety has monopolized the Daily Sun. Someone must be hoping for a Pulitzer Prize. They’re beating this one to death.

What are you missing because of this?

Not really sure what you’re asking. I don’t think I’m missing anything.

I have a soft spot for The Villages Daily Sun as they did a Memorial Day article on me and my pushing libraries to get a link to the Florida Victim Services Directory in 2007. I had been pushing a lot of other states to get something similar if they did not already have them.

The article got factual stuff wrong but it was the effort that counted. Gary Corsair wrote it along with various stories about high school basketball and also a number of days' stories on Bigfoot.

You seem critical of the series…..

I stated a fact. Followed by some conjecture then added an opinion. If you find that critical….. Well okie dokie then. Have a nice day.

Did the article by chance list the common causes for this (or was it the obvious distracted stuff)? I know when there are marked cross walks, often times people (the pedistrians) do not use them or go against the light, etc.

These went into detail about why these are happening and what could be done to help ameliorate it.

Ok, only the subscribers will know since I cannot get anything on this post?

Try their web site….

yes 19 thru there is insane. The fact that they allow left turns across 4 and 5 lanes of 55 MPH traffic is crazy... On the other side of the coin is just north of Crystal River 19 becomes a very nice and scenic drive.

I did that before I posted but no luck since I don’t subscribe. I was hoping the post would become more than just a reprint of some headline and maybe the author of this post would offer some of their perspective?

I was confused at first as we drive 19 through the Ocala National Forest frequently and find it to be a very nice and relaxing leg of our trips. Now I get it, that is SR 19 and not US 19. It seems like any major road going north/south along the coastal regions can be very dangerous, way too much traffic. It’s gonna get down to 0 degrees at our northern home tonight, can’t wait to be driving on SR 19 south after the holidays: )