Planners ask to help fix unsafe Vesper Road




At their November meeting the VC Planning Group heard of yet another deadly encounter on Vesper Road, which is becoming one of the most dangerous roads in Valley Center.

Recently a horse was killed on a blind corner of Vesper. The rider was able to jump off the animal before it was hit by a car, but the horse had to be put down.

During the forum section of the planning meeting Mark Hoekstra told the group that the accident “highlights the problem we residents have there.” He asked that the planning group help his neighborhood to persuade the County to change the speed limit. “Fifty to fifty-five miles per hour is just too fast,” he said. “There is a blind corner where the accident happened and no shoulder.”

Hoekstra was an eyewitness to the accident, in which there were several riders and horses who were trying to cross the road close to dusk. “We were trying to go home. People drive ten miles over the fifty-five mile an hour speed limit and the shoulder is so narrow.”

He added that Vesper where it intersects with Valley Center Road needs a turning lane. “You really have to punch it to turn left onto Vesper from Valley Center Road, or to turn from Vesper onto Valley Center Road.”

This issue was assigned to the Mobility Subcommittee, which is chaired by Jon Vick.

Planning Group Chairman Oliver Smith said that when the County was talking about widening Valley Center Road past Vesper that they had talked about realigning Vesper to the south, making it a “T” intersection.

“It’s a terrible, terrible turn,” said planning group member Mike O’Connor. “The line of sight is terrible.”

Vick promised to give a report on the Vesper issue at the next meeting of the group in December.



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