O’Quinn concerned about highway safety in Upper Nappan

O’Quinn lives on Highway 302 near its intersection with Highway 2 just outside Amherst. Motorists sometimes turn their vehicles onto the road from Highway 2, see the open, flat stretch and tramp on the gas.
“I have the fear every day that this will be the day that someone is hurt really bad or killed along here,” O’Quinn said. “People just see this flat, straight stretch of highway and they step on it without thinking someone could turn out of our driveway or my mother’s, or Nick VanVulpen’s farm.”
O’Quinn grew up just across the highway and recalls numerous times when there were close calls involving her mother and father. She had her own near miss several years ago.
“We were almost killed on New Year’s Day just after we moved into the hosue. We were coming home from a skating party with friend. A beautiful day almost turned tragic because someone decided it would be a good time to race by to get past the traffic,” she said. “By the grace of God, Sean glimpsed into the side mirror at the last minute and moved the car to the opposite side of the road before we were kit. We all would’ve been killed.”
Years ago, when she and her brothers were all kids, her parents were almost killed by a logging truck, passing two cars that didn’t see that her father had activated the turn signal on his car. Her father’s car was knocked into the ditch and destroyed, but her parents survived.
“We were young children, watching TV, waiting for supper. That could have been a terrible day, fortunately it wasn’t,” O’Quinn said.
O’Quinn said she has talked to Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal officials about the road and possibly removing the passing lane that starts just after the intersection and continues along the road. She said she was told the passing lanes can’t be changed because there is a clear view of the road ahead . To her it’s legally safe, but not reality safe.
While she has grown accustomed to the traffic speeding by her home, two cars travelling by the house at high speed several days ago renewed her fear.
“As I let my dog out I watched again two cars racing from the corner, pass my house, side by side going 110, for sur,e at my driveway and accelerating. They may not know that deer ravel across this road in the morning from behind the trees at this time almost everyday, or the newspaper deliverywoman drives slowly to drop off the paper doing their job at this time and many more unsuspecting drivers were exposed to their recklessness,” she said. “It may not matter to them, but there are more young families returning to live on this road and my deepest fear is that these fabulous new families don't know yet the extra safety that they will need to do, to protect their family.”
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Twitter: @ADNdarrell