Couple demands safer intersection after Clarence crash
Changes sought after their yard is part of death scene in Clarence crash
Tim and Jennifer DeLotto never want to experience another night like Sunday.
Four Amherst teenagers were killed in a collision at Strickler and County roads in Clarence, with two of them ending up in the DeLottos’ side yard.
It was the fourth time that vehicles involved in accidents came to rest on the couple’s property in the last seven years, and they don’t want it to happen again. That’s why they are demanding that additional traffic-control devices be installed at the intersection.
At a minimum, they say, the intersection needs a traffic light, the speed limit should be further lowered, and truck-size boulders should be placed at the intersection’s northwest corner to protect their side yard.
“My whole family could be wiped out. What if it had been a big rig, a gas tanker, that had come up into the yard?” said DeLotto, the father of two young sons who play in the yard in the warmer weather.
Erie County officials have a different opinion.
So long as motorists obey the speed limit and drive safely, they say, the intersecting county-owned roads are safe.
“The roads are safe, and when drivers obey the speed limit and practice safe driving, that intersection is indeed safe,” said Grant Loomis, spokesman for County Executive Chris Collins.
After the crash, Gerard J. Sentz, the county’s public works commissioner, inspected the intersection and determined that proper signs and speed limits are in place, Loomis added.
But the DeLottos beg to differ.
Jennifer DeLotto said Wednesday that a hill at the southeast side of the intersection forces northbound motorists on Strickler Road to go slightly past the stop sign to determine whether there are any vehicles westbound on County Road.
Tim DeLotto says a hill on County Road, about 1,000 feet east of the intersection, also delays the view of motorists approaching from that direction until they reach the crest.
Then there’s the temptation among some young drivers to “drag-race” on these rural back roads, Jennifer DeLotto said.
Responding to a complaint of speeders from a resident on Strickler, the county, at the request of Clarence officials, adjusted the speed limit from 55 mph to 45 mph, between Main Street and County Road in April.
The speed limit remains 55 mph on County Road.
Loomis did not shut the door on the possibility of making future changes in the vicinity of the intersection.
“We’ll, of course, wait to hear if police bring up any sort of issues related to the road,” he said.
Accident investigators have now interviewed an eyewitness who confirmed their belief that the car driven by 18-year-old Viktor Shapiro passed a Strickler Road stop sign as it sped north into the intersection.
“The eyewitness who was driving eastbound on County Road observed the sedan traveling at a high rate of speed, and he actually had a discussion with his wife, saying, "Wow, look at this car. It’s never going to stop.’ He then saw the crash,” said Erie County Sheriff’s Sgt. Scott M. Joslyn, head of accident investigation.
As Shapiro’s car entered the intersection, according to the witness, a westbound minivan on County Road T-boned the car’s passenger side, Joslyn said.
After hearing a loud noise, Jennifer DeLotto hurried out a side garage door and began shouting to her husband to call 911. On the grass beside the garage was 16-year-old Megan Schnorr.
“She was moaning, and I put a blanket over her,” said Jennifer DeLotto, who plans to get counseling to cope with what happened.
Tim DeLotto, who had just been preparing to put their sons to bed, came out the front door, where he saw Shapiro curled up in a fetal position on his driveway.
“What bothered me was, I couldn’t do a thing for him. He had head trauma,” Tim DeLotto said.
But now, days later, the DeLottos say they are determined to take defensive moves to protect their family from the aftermath of any future crashes.
“I want boulders as big as my pickup truck put in place at the corner,” Tim DeLotto said. “The cars fly over the drainage ditch, and I don’t think guardrails would stop them.”
In making a case for a traffic light, Tim DeLotto pointed out that a little more than a mile away in either direction, east and west on County Road from the intersection with Strickler, there are traffic lights where Goodrich and Salt roads intersect with County.
“They should at least install a blinking red light for Strickler with a blinking yellow light for County,” he said.
Jennifer DeLotto says police mentioned several possible traffic-control devices for Strickler, including rumble strips that motorists would ride over to alert them that they are approaching an intersection and double sets of oversized stop signs on the north and south sides of Strickler.
“I’m not happy with that; I want a traffic light,” Jennifer DeLotto said.
This isn’t the first time she has tried to improve the intersection’s safety, she says.
In 2005, after the third accident on their property, she had contacted the county’s Public Works Department and says she was told that County Road is a thoroughfare to Akron and that there was nothing that could be done because motorists would get upset if they were delayed.
Clarence Supervisor Scott A. Bylewski says something needs to be done to make motorists more aware at the intersection.
“I’ve been in discussion with the county Public Works and the Sheriff’s Department to see what, if anything, can be done,” Bylewski said. “I know there needs to be more awareness. Drivers need to be made aware of the situation around them.”
After a second crash at Strickler and County less than 24 hours after Sunday’s fatal accident, a makeshift memorial to the deceased teenagers was moved to St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church at Maple Road and St. Gregory Court in Amherst because of continuing safety concerns at the intersection.
But relocating the memorial hasn’t stopped loved ones from visiting the crash site.
“Family members are coming here,” said Tim DeLotto, who has willingly spoken with them. “They want to see where the souls left the bodies, and I don’t blame them.”
A service to remember the four teens is scheduled at 8 p.m. Friday in St. Gregory’s.
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