BALTIMORE — A West Baltimore homeowner is having to replace her fence for a third time in less than 2 years after cars keep crashing into it.
Barbara Baskerville documents the damage.
She takes photo each time there’s an accident at the intersection of Windsor Ave. and N. Dukeland Street, and when a car comes barreling into her yard.
“I don't know what they're avoiding, but they always end up over here,” said Baskerville. “And it's really getting out of hand. I pay for this fence out of my homeowner’s insurance claim three times.”
“So you're having to pay the deductible every time,” WMAR-2 News Mallory Sofastaii asked Baskerville.
“Yes,” she responded.
“And how much is the deductible?” Sofastaii asked.
“Oh, well, it's $600. Each time they say well we're going to try to get you your money back, but it never happens,” said Baskerville.
Baskerville added that several of the drivers who've hit her fence were either uninsured or driving a car with stolen tags, making it more difficult to recover her deductible.
A light pole and fire hydrant have also taken hits, but Baskerville and her neighbors worry it could be a child next.
“The children walk through here going up there to school. Here's the lady right here with her child. She comes through here every day,” said Baskerville.
There are speed humps, however, they’ve had little impact.
“Oh, the speed bumps? You hear the speed going over those speed bumps. They don't slow down for them,” Baskerville said.
“A couple years ago, somebody out here came across that speed bump and ripped the gas tank off their vehicle, had to get hazmat and all that to clean up the mess and all,” said Floyd Williams, another neighbor.
Baskerville said she’s put in traffic calming and sign requests over the years, most recently in October. According to 3-1-1 records, there hasn’t been any status updates on her request with a scheduled completion date in January 2024.
“Never has the city actually contacted me about these requests I'm putting in,” said Baskerville.
WMAR-2 News contacted the Baltimore City Department of Transportation. In an email, Marly Cardona-Moz, the director of communications wrote:
“The BCDOT Traffic Division collected speed data between the 2200 and 3100 blocks of Windsor Avenue, as part of an evaluation based on the community’s traffic calming requests. For the six years between January 2015 and December 2020, there were either one or two crashes occurring per year. However, there was an increase in 2021. In these cases, our staff will explore other measures that might improve safety. Improved intersection visibility, upgraded signs, and pavement markings are a proportional response to speeding within 1 mph to 2 mph of the regulatory speed limit of 25 mph, which is what our data indicates. Our Team has already begun the process of pursuing these measures. As these improvements are implemented, BCDOT will reach out to this community to gauge the impact of these measures and conduct further evaluations.”
She added that of the 15 crashes between January 2015 and December 2021, 5 of them were in 2021 alone.
Sofastaii asked about the City’s timeline for next steps, if there’s crash data for 2022 and 2023, and when the City plans to replace the light pole that came down following an accident in July.
Cardona-Moz said she’d follow up with answers next week.
In the meantime, these neighbors are signaling something needs to be done and soon.
“Why wait for a tragedy before they do anything? So, if they can do anything, the neighborhood association and all would appreciate it,” said Williams.
For more information on the City’s process for implementing traffic calming measures, and how to request them in your neighborhood, click here.