NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. — Harry Hahn works in waste management, but he says living off of Trouble Creek Road in New Port Richey has turned him into a first responder of sorts.
When we first spoke to him in April, he said in the nine years he's lived here he's seen many accidents. They include an October 2022 crash where a biker was launched into his pool and lost a leg—and another, in June 2023, where someone lost their life.
"It gets me choked up...um...I don't think I'd live here if this wall wasn't here, just out of fear," he said in April.
At the time, he showed us an email from Pasco County workers that said the intersection would get a "traffic signal in the near future."
In an email to ABC Action News, the county said it had done traffic studies on the road and would be installing "guardrails" and "chevrons" at various points to promote safety.
But Hahn said an accident from a few weeks ago happened right around the corner and proves guardrails alone won't cut it.
"All said and done they missed the guardrail, went behind the guardrail, hit a three-inch railing that I guess protects a little drainage ditch. They hit all that and damaged all that, but missed the guardrail and damaged the car and it was a one-vehicle accident," he said.
Hahn has also suggested that the county block off the intersection of Trouble Creek Road and Spike Horn Drive to cut down on the number of accidents.
"Blocking off the intersection to me aesthetically isn't the most attractive looking thing, but I am not looking for attractiveness I am looking for them to do something that is going to be safer," he said.
Between the most recent crash and the first email he got—Hahn told ABC Action News he was confident the county would make good on its promise for more substantial changes in the area.
That is until he got another email.
In this email, dated April 30, the county says that while the intersection meets federal requirements for safety improvements it adds that they don't have a "programmed funding date" to get started on that traffic signal—meaning there isn't a clear timeline on when that signal might go up.
It's a development that's left Hahn to worry about what will happen next on this busy road.
"A stoplight would be great because that would cut down the speeding and the accidents. But, I mean fix one thing at a time if they can," he said.
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ABC Action News emailed Pasco County to get some clarity.
A county spokesperson confirmed that this intersection meets the requirements for a traffic signal, but he added that right now that intersection has a "low priority value" on the county's list of traffic signals they have to work on.
He went on to say that work on a traffic stop there probably won't happen until sometime after 2028.
In the meantime, they say they'll be conducting a study on the need for lighting and will look into whether or not the speed limit needs to be lowered.
Lastly, when it comes to blocking off the intersection—as Hahn proposed—the county said there aren't enough medians close by with turn lanes. Due to this, they can't "justify" blocking off this intersection.
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