WEST SENECA, N.Y. (WKBW) — After the death of Edward Travis on Southwestern Boulevard just one day after prom and days before graduation, several viewers reached out to express their concerns about that stretch of roadway.
The portion of Southwestern between Angle Road and Transit Road curves and has a number of busy business parking lots and intersections on it. Members of the Southtowns YMCA complained to 7 Eyewitness News that turning out of the parking lot onto Southwestern has been difficult and dangerous for years.
One member felt so strongly, she stopped to tell us how she kept her newly licensed daughters from driving on Southwestern . "It's so scary when you have a young driver going to the Y and they're trying to pull out. You have cars behind you putting pressure on you or making you feel pressured to go," says Joy Warren.
West Seneca Police agree that Southwestern has been a concern for them, enough so that they've had targeted enforcement of traffic violations on the curve. The West Seneca chief of police has also tried to work with the state to put a traffic light in the area but has had no success. However, police say that this dangerous roadway is not a factor in Travis's crash. The cause of the crash is still under investigation.
The crash that claimed the life of Frontier High School senior Edward Travis and injured three others is just one of two deadly crashes within one month in West Seneca. On Mother's Day, 17-year-old Tyler Wackowski was killed in a crashat Langner and Fisher Roads. AAA Driver Trainer Michael Formanowicz says these crashes are unfortunate but happen more frequently during the '100 Deadliest Days' between Memorial and Labor days when new drivers are out of school and on the roads.
Formanowicz reminds parents to set good examples for their younger drivers by eliminating distractions behind the wheel and cutting out all impairment, like drugs and alcohol. He also reminds drivers not to drive drowsy.
