After EC Student's Death, Petition Urges INDOT To Make SR 1 Safer

An online petition seeking safety improvements on State Road 1 in Dearborn County has thousands of signatures.

East Central High School senior student Brett Fox, seen here with his mother and father, died in a crash on State Road 1 in Dearborn County on February 21, 2019. A new online petition makes a plea for efforts to make the highway safer. Sandy Mahoney photo.

(Dearborn County, Ind.) - A petition is gaining thousands of signatures as it asks the Indiana Department of Transportation to make safety improvements on State Road 1 in Dearborn County.

The petition was started by a relative of Brett Fox, an East Central High School senior who died after crashing on S.R. 1 near Whitaker Lane on his way to school last February 21. The 18-year-old’s pickup truck went off the roadway after encountering black ice, possibly caused by re-freezing of water runoff from a hillside along the highway.

The petition -- it is titled "Make Indiana's Route 1 safe in memory of Brett Fox" -- asks INDOT to address issues with drainage and guardrails on S.R. 1. The state is urged to find a solution to the number of crashes on that stretch of the highway.

“The road is very narrow with random guardrails.  The main issue is the drainage and runoff across Route 1 which causes hydroplaning and black ice issues on this road,” the petition states.

File photo.

Heather Fox started the petition on June 1. Within three days and as of Monday morning, the online petition has more than 3,800 supporters.

As a state highway, S.R. 1 is under the jurisdiction of the INDOT, but the petition is to a number of agencies and local office holders.

The two-lane highway serving as the main north-south thoroughfare through Dearborn County has seen its share of serious crashes in recent years. In July of last year, a man died in a head-on crash between a pickup truck and a tractor trailer. In 2017, a semi carrying hogs overturned in almost the exact spot where Brett Fox wrecked. In 2004, a truck hauling more than 50 horses overturned on S.R. 1 in the same vicinity, leading to many of the animals being euthanized at the scene.

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