Surprise signs called safety hazard
After resurrecting, and then removing a 3-way stop sign at Willowdale Boulevard and East Heather, Councilman Shelley Tastet is hoping to put the matter to rest for good by introducing legislation to delete a 25-year-old ordinance.
That 1984 ordinance called for the installation of the signs at the Willowdale intersection, but they didn’t stay up for long because someone removed them soon after with a hacksaw. For years, residents of Willowdale/Willowridge made due without a 3-way stop sign at the entrance to their neighborhood, but when one resident who lived near the intersection threatened a lawsuit against the parish earlier this month, Tastet asked the parish to reinstall them.
Though the signs only stayed up for two days, it still startled many residents who were driven out of their routine by the red octagons. Some drivers were even ticketed for not stopping.
“My office was given no advance warning that these stop signs were being installed,” Sheriff Greg Champagne said. “This is the first time that I can recall that that has occurred in my tenure as sheriff, as typically there is council action along with extensive publication and an effective date.”
Champagne has never even seen the original ordinance – one that is so old that the name of the cross street is described as 3rd Street, which doesn’t exist anymore.
Tastet said that he should have warned residents that the signs were coming.
“I didn’t catch a lot of heat for installing the signs, but some residents were upset that the signs were installed without advance warning,” Tastet said. “I was just trying to have them put up until we could find out a legal way to remove them.”
The signs were removed two days after their resurrection when Champagne informed Tastet and Parish President V.J. St. Pierre about the hazardous situations the 3-way stop was causing.
“The day after the signs had been installed, I began receiving multiple calls and complaints concerning the danger that the intersection presented since drivers were totally surprised by the signs,” Champagne said. “I got reports of several near accidents as a result of drivers running through the signs and some of drivers almost rear-ending other drivers who were noticing the signs.”
Champagne said that one driver even called to say that she had to drive onto the shoulder to avoid being hit by another driver after she stopped for the sign.
“Never before have I received such calls after the installation of any stop signs anywhere else in the parish,” Champagne said. “Unbeknownst to me, a citizen living in the area called 911 requesting enforcement of the stop signs and that resulted in a deputy writing four tickets for that offense.
“I will ask the district attorney to consider dismissing those four tickets as I believe there should have been more advance warning of the signs being installed.”
However, Champagne said his department will continue to strictly enforce the speed limit on Willowdale Boulevard.
Tastet’s ordinance, which will be voted on at the Parish Council’s July 6 meeting, will seek to delete the 3-way stop sign once and for all.
“The resident who threatened the lawsuit wants me to support the sign’s reinstallation, but we have never had a serious problem at that intersection and the majority of the residents don’t want the sign back up there,” Tastet said.
If the ordinance fails and the 3-way stop sign is reinstalled, Tastet and Champagne both said that there needs to be warning signs 100 feet ahead of the 3-way stop to alert residents of its existence.
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