KUNA, Idaho — The corner of Deer Flat and Stewart road in Kuna is seeing more traffic, especially more truck traffic. One homeowner is raising concerns for safety after she says her fence has been destroyed three times by trucks taking the corner too tight.
- ACHD says they're looking into a shoulder widening project at the corner to make it easier for trucks to turn.
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
"I live here, my animals live here. It's not just a speedway where people can just wreck and leave," says Karla Taylor, who lives on the corner of Deer Flat and Stewart Road.
She's fed up after the fence to her property was destroyed a third time — She says that sand and gravel trucks are taking the corner too tight.
"It's a respect issue. So, it's super super hard for me because I've lived here for 40+ years and it's just been recently that this amount of disrespect happens," says Taylor.
She tells me she's spent thousands of dollars fixing her fence which keeps her cows in the pasture — The second time it was destroyed, they got out and were roaming the streets.
"I just feel like more needs to be done on this corner because it's ultimately going to be a bloodbath. Someday the cows are going to get out, you see the traffic, what's going to happen? It's gonna be a mess and there's gonna be all kinds of liability issues going on here," says Taylor.
"It is definitely seeing more vehicles than it had in the past and an increase in trucks. The gravel trucks are significantly more than they used to be," says Matt Degen, the Safety Engineering Manager for ACHD.
He tells me this corner is on their radar. The last time the fence was destroyed they installed reflective markers on the corner. Those have since been mowed down.
"Potentially with the increase in traffic, while it's still not a lot of traffic there is an increase, that trucks don't have the opportunity to maybe veer over that center line to make the turn," says Degen.
I asked Matt if these trucks are allowed on rural roads like this. He told me they don't usually restrict truck traffic.
"In this setting, we think that trucks should be allowed to use the road and rather than restrict truck access on those roads, we would adjust the infrastructure to allow trucks to navigate those roads safely," explained Degen. "So the next look at this would be, basically a more significant project where we'd probably be looking at a shoulder widening. That would allow vehicles to make that turn."
