Crash victim calls for safety improvements on dangerous Saunders County road

CEDAR BLUFFS, Neb. (WOWT) — A dangerous lip along a heavily traveled county road west of Omaha nearly cost one driver his life, prompting calls for immediate safety improvements.

Todd Allen was driving on Saunders County Road X on Sept. 1 when what he thought was corrective driving became a life-threatening crash.

“I felt like I was driving down the yellow line so I compensated for it and it just took me off the road,” Allen said.

Allen’s right wheel dropped off the road’s lip, sending his vehicle careening across the roadway.

“I went off back here and that’s what threw me clear across and I slid through the ditch and flipped on my side taking out that pole,” he said.

The crash hospitalized Allen with nine broken ribs, a punctured lung, a torn spleen and other injuries. His mother, Shirley Allen, said her son is “just lucky to be alive.”

ROAD CONDITIONS

For most of the eight-mile length of County Road X, also called Highway 105, there’s little shoulder space for drivers to maneuver. The narrow roadway forces drivers meeting grain trucks and farm equipment to navigate dangerously close to the yellow line.

The road’s edge drops off six inches or more in some areas, creating a hazardous lip that can catch vehicle wheels.

If you are driving along trying to avoid getting over on the left side of the road and somebody is coming the other way, there’s little room to compensate.

Shirley Allen, who examined the stretch of road where her son crashed, called for immediate improvements.

“It’s just a dangerous county road and it’s very highly trafficked,” she said. “I wish they would either widen the road and add shoulders or at least add shoulders.”

IMPROVEMENT PLANS

Saunders County Highway Superintendent Andy Nordstrom recently became aware of Todd’s accident but said the county has received other complaints. “We’ve had a few calls on it,” Nordstrom said.

The county has dispatched equipment to begin addressing the problem.

“With grass and vegetation, it pulverizes that a little bit then we place it on the shoulder of the road,” Nordstrom explained.

Soil has already been piled roadside for more than a mile, with plans to complete the work once ground conditions improve.

More substantial improvements are planned for next spring.

“Hopefully, next spring, we are going to actually widen the road two feet on each side,” Nordstrom said. “It should be an almost 30-foot road top then, a lot safer.”

The highway superintendent said about $4 million in county funds have been earmarked for the eight-mile improvement project. Traffic studies show an average of 1,200 vehicles travel the county road daily.

Until improvements are completed, Allen, who uses the road for his daily commute, remains cautious.

“No room to compensate, yes, my life could have been over that quickly,” he said. Allen believes adding just “2-3 feet would make people feel more safer.”

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