KIMBERLY (NBC 26) — County Highway N is a hard road to travel for members of the villages of Kimberly and Combined Locks.
On June 2, a tragic accident at the intersection of the highway and Wallace Street resulted in the death of 9-year-old Mackenzie Van Eperen.
According to a crash report by the Wisconsin State Patrol, the driver of a semi-tractor-trailer that hit her could not see Van Eperen when his red light turned green. The report said that as he began to go, she began to cross the crosswalk.
Members of the grieving community said that if, for example, the line for cars to stop had been further away... the driver might have seen Mackenzie.
The highway — also called Washington Street — is the jurisdiction of Outagamie County, but it is bordered by both Kimberly and Combined Locks, so community members from both villages have been reaching out to their respective governing authorities.
Monday night, the Village of Kimberly held a board meeting to gather information from the community about what they suggest could be done to increase pedestrian safety in the area.
During the meeting, many residents spoke to express the belief that the road has long needed attention to its safety standards and that it's not fair a tragedy had to happen to inspire change.
But change is what they said they've long wanted.
Lifelong resident Cindy Laha told the board she'd grown up at a house along the road. She said she wasn't allowed to play in the yard as a child because it was known that the street was dangerous.
Another man said he didn't feel safe, as a cyclist, on the street.
Some spoke to propose solutions like reducing speed limits or adding flashing lights at the crosswalk. Others emphasized that the children of both villages needed to cross the street frequently for trips to nearby parks and schools.
Village of Kimberly Board Member Greg Ulman explained that the main purpose of Kimberly's Monday night meeting was to gather information. Outagamie County's involvement is needed to elicit any significant changes to the road because the road is the county's property.
Neighbor Matt Tennessen has been a proactive advocate for change along County Highway N since before Mackenzie's accident, but he said that the effort that's been needed to try to expediently reach the right authorities has been emotionally exhausting.
"It's tough to take sitting down, and you know... maybe it's because I'm a dad... but I want to make it, you know, safe — at least reasonably safe — for all the kids," Tennessen said. "If we can just simply do a couple things that would... make this incident not happen again."
Outagamie County does have a meeting scheduled in August to discuss the issues with the road, but parents who spoke at the board meeting said waiting until the end of summer would be waiting too long.
Outagamie County could call for a special board meeting at any time prior to the one already scheduled, and they recently did call a special meeting when they voted to censure board member Tim Hermes. So, parents are asking them to call another one. This time, for the cause of potentially saving pedestrian lives.
"We want to know how — how we get that pushed back. Because it's our kids and it's our grandkids that are running this highway back and forth," said Ashley Tennessen, who said she had not initially planned to speak at the meeting. "I'm pleading with you to lean on the county or to help us with the county board to make this more of a priority now."
