Residents of a neighborhood in Northern Kentucky say they are worried about the safety of their children and neighbors as semi trucks try to access nearby warehouses by cutting through their streets.
Residents of the Cherry Hill subdivision in Erlanger say that an area of particular concern is a utility pole on Queensway Drive and Peachtree Lane behind St. Henry High School, right near a school bus stop. The community says semi trucks knock over the utility pole frequently, and the pole was most recently replaced on Monday, December 5th. This marks the third time the pole has been knocked over in four months.
The traffic stems from trucks attempting to access the new warehouses built on the old Showcase Cinemas property, all while ignoring signs prohibiting semi trucks in the neighborhood, reported Fox 19.
“They don’t need to be coming down here at all down these streets,” said resident Rebecca Bennett, whose kids wait at the bus stop. “I don’t mean to be a brat about where my kids get on the school bus, but I want them to be safe.”
Bennett says her twins were standing at the bus stop on Monday just five minutes before the utility pole was struck, and they could have been seriously hurt in the incident.
“If the bus wouldn’t have come, they would have been hit, because they wouldn’t have been paying attention,” she said. “He would’ve come around the corner, and the lines would have gone down right on top of them.”
”I work from home, so if I don’t have internet, if I don’t have electricity, I can’t work. And so, I’ve lost hours because of this,” she added.
“We don’t like it, because I’m a senior,” said Patricia Hisle, another resident. “My neighbors are seniors. And now, we have no heat, and it’s cold in the house, and it’s very upsetting.”
Erlander police say that the city has attempted to contact GPS services that route trucks through the neighborhood, and that the Boone County Executive Judge has been in contact with state officials to put up more signs, but nothing has been done yet.
For now, residents have been taking matters into their own hands when they can.
“The neighbors were out and they made them [the truck driver] back up all the way,” Hisle recalled.