Disgusted with Old Bridge Road issue

Doug Duty
Published: May 6, 2008

I read with disgust the article concerning the sidewalk on Old Bridge road. The article reads:

“There was no sidewalk along the section of Old Bridge Road where Jewell Hardin was walking on the afternoon of Oct. 16, 2007.  So the 12-year-old walked on the shoulder along the winding, arterial road… Hardin was struck by a pickup truck that ran off the road. She died a week later.

Since, a project to install a sidewalk from Titania Way to Cricket Lane has become a priority for the Virginia Department of Transportation and the Prince William County transportation office.

“After the accident, we determined that that was an unfit condition and that we needed to address that,” said Rick Canizales, transportation planning manager for Prince William County.”

What rocket scientist did it take to figure out that a sidewalk was needed? There was a vehicle accident in that same spot some time earlier.

A person who had a lobotomy could recognize that this area of Old Bridge was dangerous.

Why did it take the death of a precious child for a slothful VDOT to figure out — “that that was an unfit condition?”

Anyone who lives in this area has seen people walking there and I myself have ridden a bike there with much consternation.

Now the article says it will take a couple of years to lay a sidewalk? I bet I could have a local paving company or concrete company on it and completed by the start of the school year. Thank goodness it is a “top priority!”

Hopefully over the next two years or so no other family will have to suffer what this family suffered and then have to hear from VDOT — “we are working on it.”

DOUG DUTY
Woodbridge