Area residents voice concerns about highway curve

Note from X / Scapes... Are you going to read this page and not say anything about it?? Are you hoping you or your loved one's won't be a victim of a similar tragedy? The only way to stop it is to send this page to the powers that be. Please, make yourself heard. Make your opinion matter! A wise man once said, "If you don't like the news, go out and make some of your own!"

    So now I can say I saw it for myself. I went to the Curve on Highway 68 to check on the improvements the Dodge County Highway Commission said they were going to make. (I went on Sept. 12) That news was made public the week of Sept. 4, by radio (WBEV) as well as in the Daily Citizen. The only thing they have done so far is put up larger signs. I did witness something interesting though, for all you nay-sayers out there.
    I was parked well back, away from the curve. Along comes a huge tanker truck, screaming down the highway, and he took that curve just like a professional, NASCAR driver, that is! He cut that curve so far to the inside, he was spitting up dust!! Did I mention that he was going much faster than the 35MPH posted speed limit?
    So I say, to those of you who think the accidents that I speak of were "just one of those terrible things that happen", who do you think will be next?    I have built an on-line petition page. I don't know how much good it will do, but it can't hurt anything. Please go there and sign it.

I had driven to the infamous site again on 10/4, and I can say I see little difference in the signs. The DOT tells me they are the biggest made. The 'night arrows' are a yellow background with a black arrow, we've all seen them before. For those of you who may be interested, I did receive an e-mail from the DOT, finally. You can find it posted on What the State says...

Above is a curve on Highway 68 about one-half mile east of Fox Lake near Oaks Road is where five-year-old Shane Eveland and a 21-year-old Fox Lake woman were killed. Area residents say this is a dangerous curve where many accidents occur.

TOWN OF FOX LAKE - Residents who live near the curve on Highway 68 one-half mile east of Fox Lake near Oaks Road feel that it is dangerous and should be fixed.

"It's a terrible curve," said Debi Shivley, who lives on Highway 68 a few feet west of the curve. "There are too many people who drive too fast around that curve. More often than not, they veer into the middle so they can make it around safely."

Shivley, who often watches traffic wiz by as she sits in her living room, she believes the highway should not only be widened, but warning signs should be placed further away from the curve giving drivers plenty of notice that a dangerous curve is ahead.

"The warning signs are right as you come up on the curve," she said. "You can't expect people who are traveling at 55 miles per hour to drop down to 35 in an instant. The signs need to be placed further out."

Shivley believes rails should also be added and the speed limit around the curve should be lowered from 35 to 25 miles per hour.

Town of Fox Lake residents Beverly and Werner Dinkel, who have lived just east of the curve for 45 years, say the curve is not only bad, but dangerous.

"It's really bad, but I think people have to slow down," Beverly Dinkel said. "Since we've lived here, we have seen a lot of people go into the ditch. We have had our mailbox taken out numerous times, the culvert in front of our house crashed into and several people asked to use our phone."

A Fox Lake EMT and firefighter who lives about two miles from the curve, refers to this stretch of highway about a half-mile east of Fox Lake as Dodge County's "Dead Man's Curve."

"It is a very dangerous curve," he said. "There have been numerous accidents in that spot and a couple of fatal accidents. It's a really sharp curve and needs to be straightened out."

He not only suggested opening up the road's line of site, but also adding rumble strips.

"Whatever it would take to make that curve safer would be worth the time, effort, money and trouble," he said.

He wrote a letter to the editor, which was published in the April 15-16 edition of the Daily Citizen, urging the city, county and state government to do something about the curve. He was one of the fireman and EMTs who responded to the accident which claimed Shane Eveland's life in early April.

"I realize this will cost money and it will be an inconvenience for awhile, but in the end the troubles and cost will be well worth it," he said in his letter. "If we can save just one life it will be money well spent. I think it will save many lives and many nights sleep for all the parents, children and loved ones, along with all emergency personnel that are affected by the tragedies that would and should be eliminated by fixing that corner."

Fox Lake Fire Chief, who has served on the department since 1974 and as chief since 1996, also agrees that the curve is bad. Over the years, he has responded to numerous accidents and rollovers at the curve.

"We wanted the state to cut the curve out of the highway, but they didn't want to spend the extra money," he said. "Instead, they just built it up a little and banked it. They need to just run the road through the low land. The farm land is worthless there. No one has grown crop there in years. In fact, many times throughout the year it gets flooded out."

Highway 68, only nine miles long and the shortest highway in the state, was resurfaced in 1996.

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