Community members petition Charlotte County to make Burnt Store Rd safer

Reporter: Erika Jackson Writer: Jack Lowenstein
Published: Updated:
A portion of a stretch of Burnt Store Road under construction in Charlotte County. Credit: WINK News.

Construction on Burnt Store Road in Charlotte County has been a cause of concern for many drivers.

A dump truck flipped onto its side on a stretch of Burnt Store Tuesday, where neighbors are complaining about conditions and say they are scared to drive because it’s dangerous.

“Many dump trucks travel this road and are very aggressive drivers in a hurry,” viewer Joyce Metz sent to WINK News in an email. “And the speed needs to be monitored more closely as drivers are passing in no-passing zones and speeding.”’

Construction workers are busy widening a 4.5-mile stretch of Burnt Store to four lanes.

But people who live nearby worry that won’t make the road any safer, so they presented Charlotte County with a petition to re-route trucks from US-41 onto nearby Zemel Road and back to Burnt Store.

Burnt Store Rd is Nickie Jackson’s quickest route home.

“It’s a bit crazy,” Jackson said. “There’s always a ton of traffic. Always.”

But Jackson is uncertain it’s the most unsafe roadway to travel on.

“People like to get right up on each other whenever I’m going down the road,” Jackson said. “And it makes it very difficult if you have to turn whenever you have to turn off because it makes you very nervous.”

Concerned community members would also like the county to lower the speed limit on the north end too.

“Because of the speeding up, people going fast, they don’t go the speed limit going through the curve,” Christina Toth said.

We were near the scene of the crash involving a dump truck, where first responders went after the truck flipped on its side. The rollover blocked both southbound lanes of Burnt Store near Harborside Boulevard.

“It’s nerve racking driving down that road,” Toth said.

Jackson would also like to see more speed patrols slowing down traffic on the quickest route home.

“Either more enforcement of the of the speed limit or just, you know, in general being done,” Jacksons said.

Charlotte County says the construction project is ahead of schedule, and it is expected to finish early in 2022.

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