Source: Union-News (Springfield, MA)
Author: GEORGE GRAHAM
GOSHEN, MA – Town officials, area residents and friends and relatives of persons killed in car accidents on the snaky stretch of Route 9 between this town and Williamsburg urged state Department of Public Works officials last night to take quick action to improve the road.
That stretch of road, which gets especially treacherous in the winter, has been the site of numerous accidents and two women have died on the same curve in the last two years.
“It is the road that is at fault, it is the road that kills people,” said Williamsburg Police Chief Ernest Hendricks.
Although Joseph Superneau, District 2 highway engineer for the state DPW, told residents yesterday evening that planning is under way for a major upgrading of that section of Route 9, he added that the proposed straigtening and widening could take five to 10 years to complete.
But those in attendance at yesterday’s meeting, including Karl Affhauser, the husband of Cassandra Affhauser, 23, who died in a Route 9 crash in Williamsburg last March, urged quicker action.
Affhauser asked why a guardrail had not been installed along the section where his wife’s car hit a tree, when two weeks after the accident reflectors were put in.
Superneau said the installation of the reflectors had been planned before the accident.
“I think we have got to put a huge priority out here whether there are more voters out here or not,” said Goshen Fire Chief Francis Dresser. “To me, five years is unconscionable.”
While Superneau said that the planning and design portion of the project could take less than a year to complete, he added it could take much longer to implement the extensive land takings and reviews of wetlands and river crossings.
“I get frustrated many times that things can’t get done sooner,” said Superneau, who urged concerned residents to write letters of support for the project to Jane Garvey, commissioner of the state Department of Public Works.
Superneau said he would explore a number of short-term solutions proposed by residents yesterday as a means to make the roadway safer until reconstruction can begin.
Those suggestions include the installation of guard rails, warning signs and reflectors in dangerous areas.
Goshen Selectmen Chairwoman Nancy Hoff, who called the special meeting, urged residents to join a special task force that was created last night to examine both short- and long-term solutions to the problem.
Yesterday’s meeting was attended by residents of Goshen, Cummington, Williamsburg and Northampton as well as representatives of state Rep. Jay Healy, R-Charlemont, and Sen. John Olver, D-Amherst.
Two people were killed on the same curve in separate accidents in less than two years.