Cape Coral mother wants safer roads after avoiding car crash

Cape Coral’s ongoing utilities extension project has local roads ripped up, but it’s not stopping drivers from speeding down them. One mom in north Cape has lost her patience with those who are making it unsafe for people like her and her children.

On Sunday, Sierra Steiner, a mother in north Cape Coral, said the roads going through repairs almost cost her 3-year-old son’s life when she almost got by a car while driving.

“I care about my son’s safety,” Steiner said. “And everybody’s just starting to lose it up here. Just yesterday, I had somebody driving down Nelson, and they just flew right through the intersection, the stop sign. I didn’t even have a stop sign. They almost hit us.”

Parts of the roads under construction are blocked off with detour signs to redirect traffic, and it’s causing a lot of frustration for neighbors. Steiner said she drives through the dirt roads and past construction equipment while her son is in the back seat.

“I’m just done. This is all I have my children,” Steiner said. “I had to slam on the breaks, and we slid sideways, and I had him in the car.”

Nelson Road, Chiquita and Santa Barbara Boulevard are partially shut down for the city’s utility expansion project to install water, sewer and irrigation services to nearly 9,000 properties north of Pine Island Road.

“Every time you turn around, nobody knows where to go their either going 40 in a 25, or they’re going 60 to 70,” Steiner said.

Crews have orange barrels and detour signs to redirect traffic, but Steiner said no one is paying attention. She wants law enforcement to stop dangerous drivers.

“We need stop lights or those lights on the stop sign to show hey there’s a stop sign here,” Steiner said. “All I have is my kids, and I don’t want them taking my kids away because they are in a hurry.”

The city told WINK News it plans to wrap up construction for this phase by 2020.